Confessions of a Backup Dancer [Paperback]

Anonymous (Author), Tucker Shaw (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2004

glamour. access. scandal.

Ever wonder what your favorite pop divas are like AFTER the cameras stop rolling? What do they do behind closed doors? What are their parties like? What do they think about? What do they fight about? What do they really want? And who do they REALLY hook up with?

Kelly Kimball spent a summer as a backup dancer for Darcy Barnes, the biggest pop star in the world. Kelly's got the real story on Darcy, her life, her family, and her entourage -- and she's spilling it here for the first time. If you think the life of a superstar can't possibly be all it's cracked up to be, you're wrong. It's all that and more. And it's all inside Kelly's tell-all diary: Confessions of a Backup Dancer.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–Kelly Kimball, 17, is a talented dancer. When her best friend convinces her to attempt a Los Angeles audition, Kelly ultimately finds herself on a summer tour as a backup with pop princess Darcy Barnes, who soon views Kelly as her new best friend. Kelly works hard to be a top performer, which is difficult when she has to deal with Darcy's overbearing mother, Darla, who calls the shots; sensational media hype; the star's tendencies to smoke pot, drink too much, and sneak around with her boyfriend; and the pressures of the road. However, Kelly feels responsible for earning the money she knows her family needs. When Darla unjustly fires her, Kelly dances with a competitor's tour, until the diva has the guts to stand up to her mother, bring Kelly back into the show, and prove that she truly is her friend. The book is told through Kelly's "entries" into personal diary software, interspersed with instant messages and e-mails. The teen's lively character is realized through this creative format, and her voice rings clear and true. It is through that voice, complete with wry humor, realistic slang, and occasional coarse vernacular, that supporting characters and situations come to life. The purposeful grammatical errors simulating the way a "real" teen might write are mildly annoying. However, fans of Rachel Cohn's Pop Princess (S & S, 2004) and Sarra Manning's Guitar Girl (Dutton, 2004) will easily overlook them as they join Kelly on her travels and enjoy this backstage view of stardom.–Diane P. Tuccillo, City of Mesa Library, AZ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 8-12. Talk about your guilty pleasures! From the shiny silver cover with its stylized photograph of a dancer to the online diary format, this is a book teens will fight over. Kelly Kimball, an "ordinary" 17-year-old from San Diego, is selected to be a backup dancer for teen superstar Darcy Barnes' summer tour. We all want to know about the secret lives of pop stars, and thanks to Kelly, readers learn what Darcy likes to watch (Disney videos), her working habits (driven professional), her relationship with her boyfriend, with whom she is absolutely not having sex (yeah, right), and her not-as-happy-as-it-looks rapport with her overbearing mother. E-mails and instant messages intersperse the online diary entries written by a talented girl who gets a chance to make it big but realizes fame isn't all she's expected. The pop culture references will date quickly, but this is a compulsively readable, potato chip of a book that will be passed from teen to teen (with a few adults sneaking a peek as well). Debbie Carton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse; Original edition (May 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689870752
• ISBN-13: 978-0689870750
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,872,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT!, August 2, 2004

By 

Ashley J. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confessions of a Backup Dancer (Paperback)

Oh my gosh! I loved this book so much! It was a great story and I, being a dancer and singer, was immediatley drawned to such a strong lead character. Kelly (or KK) was an amazing person and I loved how Tucker Shaw dove into her character and gave her such realism. I'm only fifteen but I love to read, to much my friends and family say, and I just got into these type of teen novels this summer but this was the first one (out of ten) I read and it was my favorite. KK and Tito are characters you feel like you know and I hope that there's a second book because when I was done I felt like I was saying goodbye to my close friends. I was also impressed that a man (Mr. Shaw) was so accurate to how a girl in Darcy's place would act. Oh yeah, to the person who said they couldn't tell if it was real or not, if you just looked at the inside cover you would've seen it say FICTION! And lastly, I loved the way it was written, the diary form was awesome.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Confessions of a Backup Dancer Review.....GREAT!, May 23, 2005

By 

Anna Wantz "LA8" (Miamisburg, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confessions of a Backup Dancer (Paperback)

Confessions of a Backup Dancer
By: Tucker Shaw

Confessions of a Backup Dancer is a nonfiction book about a girl, Kelly, who lives in San Diego and goes to an audition to later find herself going on a summer tour with the world's biggest pop star, Darcy Barnes. She gets all the insider secrets, and the real story behind all of the gossip. After getting in trouble with Darla Barnes, Darcy's control freak of a mother, Kelly is fired and then hired again by Darcy's rival, Pashmina. Over this hectic summer there are many true tests of friendship, loyalty, and "realness." I like how the characters are very real and put into real situations. Over the course of the book, there was not a character I didn't except for Darla.
This was a great book. It was unlike any book I have ever read. This book gets inside Kelly's head and actually tells the situations for what they are from her point of view. I felt like I was actually inside of her world throughout the story and I really got to know what pop stars really acted like behind all of that entourage and press. I would recommend this book to older teens around age fifteen and older. The whole book talks about realness and how important this is, and Kelly struggled with staying real all summer without letting anything spin out of control. I really loved this out-of-control, wacky, and real-life story and any teenage girl would enjoy reading Confessions of a Backup Dancer.
S. C.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, but not memorable, January 23, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Confessions of a Backup Dancer (Paperback)

Confessions of a Back-Up Dancer
By Tucker Shaw

Confessions of a Back-Up Dancer is a story that cradles you along the life of Kelly Kimball. Kelly is a 17-year-old girl whose passion was dancing. When she landed a gig on the tour for Darcy Barns', a very popular singer, Kelly was ecstatic, but what she didn't know was how far the rumors and the scandals truly went. Kelly was tested beyond what she could ever imagine physically and mentally. Kelly was given a new name, K.K., and had to hide from Darcy's frightening mother, Darla. Kelly only longed to return to her simple life in San Diego. The only thing that kept her from quitting was the thought of the money that she would receive so she could get her brother's school tuition paid. Darcy was child-like and naïve. She claimed that Kelly was her best friend but Kelly was left with nothing but utter astonishment, she wasn't even aware that they had such a close relationship.
This story is written in an odd form of a diary. It's sloppy and wasn't descriptive. I give this book two out of five stars. The message of being your self was a good one but it was just good. It was enjoyable, but not memorable. If you picked up this book, looked at it and read it, five minutes later after setting it down I would not be surprised if you already forgot this book's strange title.