Secret of the Dance [Paperback]

Susan Eileen Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2006

Chance and Jeremy Applewhite, small town brothers who both love dance, chose very different paths after high school. After seventeen years away, Jeremy returns home unannounced and discovers he's too late to make amends for never keeping in touch. Devastated by the loss and his own injuries he must figure out how to rebuild his life. Remi, Chance's sixteen-year-old daughter, herself a ballet dancer, is thrilled by her uncle's return, but tensions build as Chance feels Jeremy's presence could cause trouble. A heartfelt novel about pursuing dreams and being true to your heart.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—Jeremy Applewhite, world-famous dancer, returns to Romney, WV, for his grandmother's funeral. Seventeen years have passed since he has been back, and he and his brother, Chance, have barely kept in touch. Beset by painful injuries, Jeremy realizes that his Broadway dancing days are over, but he has no idea what to do next. Fortunately, his return home leads to love, a new direction for his talents, and confirmation that Chance's 16-year-old "daughter," an able young dancer, is actually Jeremy's child. Although the teen plays a role throughout the story, the real focus seems to be on the relationship between the brothers, which may limit the book's appeal for YAs. The men are trying to come to terms with the disappointments in their lives, the sacrifices they have made, and how they can reestablish their relationship. The characters are all decent people whose problems are neatly solved by novel's end. What it takes to become a dancer is emphasized throughout so that readers may appreciate the relative brevity of dancers' careers as well as the drive necessary to "make it."—Carol Schene, formerly at Taunton Public Schools, MA
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About the Author

In addition to working on her next novel, Ms. Walker runs a one-woman medical transcription service. She donates over 500 baby hats each year to hospital nurseries, sings in her church’s choir and daydreams.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Keene Publishing (September 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976680548
• ISBN-13: 978-0976680543
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,743,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Young adult novel about a dancer and her family, September 8, 2006

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secret of the Dance (Paperback)

There are some "mature" issues in this young adult novel about an aspiring dancer and her family. Remi has a famous uncle, a dancer, who is injured and comes home to face a rivalry with Remi's father, his brother. And to help Remi along the way on her budding career.

The issues that may give some parents pause are homosexuality, early marriage proposals, out of wedlock sex, out of wedlock pregnancy and such. So for parents who discuss these issues or have no problems with these issues, the book will pose no issues; for parents who are concerned about any of these issues, it would pose a possible problem if they monitor kids' reading. I therefore would not suggest this for under high school age kids in any case.

The plot is simple and the tale is well-written and well-told. The young dancers are (unrealistically) but healthily shown eating hamburgers, ice cream and being entirely unobsessed on their weight, something not true to the world of dance but laudable for modeling behavior in young teens.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, August 7, 2007

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret of the Dance (Paperback)

Jeremy and Chance Applewhite have always been dancers. After high school, Jeremy moved to New York and became a star. Chance stayed at home, got married, raised a daughter, and now runs a restaurant and a dance studio with his wife, Stacy. Jeremy and Chance haven't spoken in years.

Remi, Chance's daughter, has inherited the love of dance, as well as the talent, that runs through her family. Lately she's been feeling like she's outgrown the options that a small town has to offer a promising ballerina. She's beginning to wonder if she shouldn't try and contact her famous uncle, even though she knows it will upset her dad.

Dottie is Jeremy and Chance's grandmother, but she was the one who raised them and cared for them. She hates that the boys don't communicate, not that she'll ever let the pain show. In Remi she sees an opportunity to get the ball rolling, and she encourages her to write a letter to her uncle.

Before the letter can even get to Jeremy, he mysteriously returns. But Dottie has passed away, and it's too late to fix some things. But maybe not everything. Maybe they can all turn over new leaves. They all have a lot to hide, and they're all protective, but after all this time the fall-out might be exactly what everyone needs.

There's a lot going on in this story. Lots of secrets, lots of ambition, lots of miscommunication. There's the idea of following your dreams, and the danger of doing so singlehandedly. There's also the idea of letting your dreams change to fit your life. This is really the story of Jeremy, Chance, and Stacy. Remi plays and integral part, but she's not really the main focus. It is interesting to see her on the cusp of making the same decision that everyone else made that shaped her life. I just wish we could have spent a little more time with her, and seen her make her decision. The ending was left a bit open-ended, so maybe we'll still get that chance.

Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine story, October 7, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret of the Dance (Paperback)

Two small town brothers who love to dance take different directions after high school: one journeys to New York City, the other stays in their small town to run his own restaurant and dances only part-time. Nearly twenty years pass before Jeremy returns home unannounced discovering his grandmother has died and he's lost touch with his family. Add a closely-kept family secret to tensions between adult siblings and you have a fine story which sounds like it's tailored for adults, but which is very accessible to kids ages 12 and older.