Caroline Bennett

Caroline Bennett
Breaking Pointe 
Miriam Wenger-Landis
Novel
Just Right
p. 146

1) Right now in Breaking Pointe, by Miriam Wenger-Landis, Anna's world is changing very fast. Ethan has just come back from working for two years in Switzerland. Ethan is Anna's boyfriend. Right before he left Anna gave him her number and promised to be waiting for him in Los Angeles when he got back. Now that he is back, things in Anna's life have gotten even more complicated. She is a professional dancer at Los Angeles Ballet Theater, or LABT. She has to dance long hours every day which leaves little time for a social life. Ethan understands this and promises that they can see each other as much or as little as Anna would like. To add to her normal hectic schedule, Anna has rehearsal for a principle role. A principle role is the highest role a dancer can get. Most principle roles are reserved for the older dancers, so since it's Anna's first year in the company it is a surprise. Even thought Anna knows the role is a huge opportunity and responsibility, she struggles committing to it completely because she wants to spend more time with Ethan.
2) I am really enjoying this book so far. It is the sequel to Girl in Motion, I really liked that book so I had high expectations for Breaking Pointe. I think one of the things that makes this book so good is that the author was a dancer and used many of her personal experiences to write the book. Since she experienced going through a ballet theater, she knows what is realistic and unrealistic and can write a book about ballet that is believable. The book isn't action filled or fast paced but there is a lot of drama, which I like. There are a lot of emotions between characters and they aren't always nice to one another. I feel this adds to the plot in a positive way. I think most of characters are people that you could meet in real life, thats how much depth they have to them. A lot of how much you like a book depends on how real the characters seem, so I think the author really improved her book by making the characters real. The only other book I've read by this author is the book before this one in the series, but I will definitely look for her other books.
3) One of the themes that stood out to me in the book so far is Power of Tradition. Ballet is very traditional and ballerinas are expected to act, look and behave a certain way. One way is through the execution of the elements they are required to preform. But the way that stood out to me was in the way they look. Ballerinas are expected to be very thin. Companies sometimes put pressure on their dancers to fit the body type they are looking for. Companies push their dancers to be as thin as possible even if that affects their health. If ballet was a new idea and someone was telling people they must look a certain way and give them unhealthy ways to look that way, people would probably protest. It is because ballet is a tradition that no one pushes to change it. Its is the power of tradition that has kept ballet alive for so long. Anna, the narrator, talks a lot about the company pushing people who are already very thin to lose more weight. She also expresses wonder as to why no one is outraged at the way ballet theaters and companies treat there dancers. The answer, again,  is power of tradition.
4) My favorite character is Anna. I think Anna has a really great personality. She is very determined and works very hard at ballet. I really admire those qualities in her. She is also very kind to everyone and never tries to start any trouble at the company which seems to be a very rare quality at LABT. I've started to like Anna even more in the more recent parts of the book because she is changing a little bit. In a way, she is becoming more human. Her whole life has been about dance and now that she has met Ethan she is realizing that there is more to life than dance. She is experiencing more things outside of the dance studio which I think helped me relate to her more.
5) My least favorite character is Hillary. Hillary also appeared in the first book in the series, when Anna and her are both at School of Ballet New York, or SBNY. Hillary was one of Anna's biggest competitors, and her roommate. When they were rooming together Hillary did some very mean things to Anna to try and sabotage her life and ballet career. Part of the reason I don't like her is because of the things she did in the first book, but she has also been very sneaky in Breaking Pointe. For a while, Hillary was pretending to be nice to Anna but then she made a few jokes about stealing Ethan from Anna. However, I'm not so sure Hillary was completely kidding. I feel like Hillary will be back to her mean ways again soon.
6) I have a few predictions about what will happen next in the book. I think Hillary will try and get Ethan away from Anna so she can date him. I think this because she really hates seeing Anna happy in any way, and she also expressed to Anna that she likes Ethan. I think since everything is going so well for Anna in her ballet career that something bad must happen that stops her from doing ballet. If only temporarily. I also think that Anna will become a great ballerina because she has already gotten a huge part and she is very young.