She Kept Dancing: The True Story of a Professional Dancer with a Limb Difference

Written with Laudone, Mesher’s personal tale centers persistence in following a dream alongside a message of “celebrating different body types using a language everyone could understand: dance.” Mesher was born “with ten toes and five fingers. But it was her toes that Mom noticed first,” informing her mother’s belief that Mesher would become a dancer. The third-person narrative follows Mesher through childhood years of dance classes to a performing arts high school, and finally to various professional pursuits in New York City where—after several rejections as well as an “intermission” due to a broken foot—she achieves her wish of becoming a Rockette, Radio City’s first visibly disabled dancer. The honest, sensitive voice doesn’t shy away from representing the cruel words that Mesher endured (“Others called her a monster”), while also capturing the joy of “turning, swaying, and leaping.” Depicting characters with a variety of skin tones, Quek’s figure-focused cartoon art enlivens the pages with energetic depictions of movement. A personal note from Mesher concludes. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)