Leah Stephenson has been the star of her local ballet class since she put on her first pair of ballet slippers at age six. Now, she has one big chance to make it in the ballet world - her teacher is sending her to an audition against hundreds of girls for one of fifteen coveted spots at the prestigious San Francisco Ballet Academy.

This is the introductory novel - and it suffers from many of the problems of these. Most of the novel is spent with Leah dealing with competitiveness, losing her friends and trying to make new ones. Upon reread, I don't find Leah particularly endearing in this novel. She makes snap judgments of James, Alex, and others. She spends all of her time focusing on sizing up other dancers, angsting about her own future, and condemning her best friend from home for daring to be upset that Leah doesn't even consider the hole she might leave in others' lives and plans.

Leah is very fifteen - she's self-absorbed and insecure about everything. Including her obvious talent for dancing that everyone's done nothing but praise to high heaven since she arrived. I think this is one of my least favorite of the series - most likely because there is so little actual dancing in this one. But every series has to start somewhere. Not bad for young girls, but it doesn't hold up terribly well as anything but an introduction. ( )

I loved this series as a child! I wish I hadn't gotten rid of them.