Up to this Pointe

Harper and her best friend Kate have dreamed of becoming professional ballerinas in the San Francisco Ballet ever since they were small, but after their plans go awry, Harper finagles her way into a six-month stint in Antarctica. Harper is a member of the Scott family (as in explorer Robert Falcon Scott), which makes her Antarctic “royalty,” and she’ll be one of three students sent to “The Ice” via a National Science Foundation grant. Flashback chapters following Harper’s time in San Francisco can’t help but feel conventional next to the newness and unfamiliarity of her time in Antarctica, but Harper’s passion for dance, jealousy over Kate’s success, and heartache when she realizes her own dancing dreams may not come to be are incisively written. “Your love is evident,” her instructor tells her. “But, darling, sometimes ballet does not love us back.” Longo (Six Feet Over It) makes it easy to commiserate with Harper as she tries to move past disappointment and envision a new path forward. Ages 12–up. [em]Agent: Melissa Sarver White, Folio Literary Management. (Jan.) [/em]