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The Friendship Ring #2
Tienes que entenderlo
CJ Hurley está obsesionada con el ballet desde que empezó hace seis años. Para CJ, la clase de baile es algo mágico, donde todo cobra sentido.
Pero últimamente, el ballet parece ocuparle todo su tiempo. Por primera vez piensa en dejarlo, en convertirse en una chica normal, para poder salir con sus amigos e ir a la pizzería como ellos. Tal vez incluso podría jugar al fútbol.
Si CJ pudiera darle las malas noticias a su madre... «Por favor... tienes que enterlo...», piensa CJ. ¿Sabrán todos comprender el porqué de su cambio?
Pero últimamente, el ballet parece ocuparle todo su tiempo. Por primera vez piensa en dejarlo, en convertirse en una chica normal, para poder salir con sus amigos e ir a la pizzería como ellos. Tal vez incluso podría jugar al fútbol.
Si CJ pudiera darle las malas noticias a su madre... «Por favor... tienes que enterlo...», piensa CJ. ¿Sabrán todos comprender el porqué de su cambio?
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
15 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Vail
56 books457 followersBirth
I was born on July 25, 1966, in NEW YORK CITY, and grew up in New Rochelle, NY, with my mother, my father, and my younger brother Jon. (And down the street from my future husband, though of course I didn't know that until much later.)
Interests
Some details, I do know-I was very into reading and theater, so I read every book I could get my hands on (especially realistic fiction, either contemporary or historical) and took acting workshops and auditioned for every play in school, camp, or the community. I played Peter Pan, Miss Hannigan in Annie, Benny Southstreet in Guys and Dolls, the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, and lots of extremely memorable chorus parts-for instance, I was "girl number two" in Fiddler on the Roof-the one who said "We heard about your sister, Chava". I didn't care -I just wanted to be on stage. Waiting backstage before curtain call, after giving my all in a performance, was the best feeling I knew. In seventh grade I started taking magic lessons, and by eighth grade I was making all my own spending money by performing at kids' birthday parties as a clown named Tallulah. I liked the freedom of wearing all that grease-paint-I could be as wacky and un-cool as I wanted. I tried dance but felt so clumsy. I faked a sprained ankle to get out of the recital. I took voice lessons which made me a little light-headed (and I was afraid of the voice teacher's growling, drooling Doberman) and both saxophone and piano, neither of which I ever practiced. I did well in school but started a lot of my work at the last minute, in a crazy mad dash, so that it was never late but there were usually careless errors or areas I had to fudge. I had this idea that to work hard at something was sort of a negative, an admission that I didn't have natural talent. If I wasn't going to be Mozart and have the music (or dance, or math, or social studies term paper, or whatever) channeled through me from God, then I was just embarrassing myself by all that workmanlike effort. I didn't get over that idea until after college, by the way.
Career Ambitions
I never really planned to be a writer. I planned to be a financial wizard after learning about option-spreading at age 10, then a poet after discovering Shakespeare at 11. After overhearing "the real power is held by the lobbyists" on a class trip to Albany, I planned to become a lobbyist. Secretly, of course I always imagined myself as an actress, but that didn't seem hard or important enough, and also I worried I wasn't naturally gifted enough.
Parents
My parents were always great. I liked to make them proud, and they trusted me and supported my efforts and interests, which was sometimes weirdly tough. There was so little for me to rebel against.
As a Kid
When people ask me what I was as a kid, I always feel like my answer is at best incomplete.What are you like, as a kid? I'm still trying to figure out what I'm like as an adult.
Socially
Well, things went in waves. Sometimes I felt very "in", very aware of and tied in to the whole scene, excited by who liked whom, all the gossip, some of it less than kind. Other times I felt so alone-like there was nobody like me, nobody who liked me, nobody to talk to. And much of the time it was somewhere in between. A best friend when I was lucky, and a few people in each crowd I liked and who liked me. I resisted being classified as a brain or a jock or alternative or popular-too limiting. I would have to shut down too many parts of myself to be just one type.
Adolescence
I went through a very intense stage in middle school (Junior High). I worried about being too ordinary. I also worried about being too weird. I also worried about changing states of matter, my inability to be morally certain, ignorance (my own and world-wide), and making a fool of myself.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/rachel...
I was born on July 25, 1966, in NEW YORK CITY, and grew up in New Rochelle, NY, with my mother, my father, and my younger brother Jon. (And down the street from my future husband, though of course I didn't know that until much later.)
Interests
Some details, I do know-I was very into reading and theater, so I read every book I could get my hands on (especially realistic fiction, either contemporary or historical) and took acting workshops and auditioned for every play in school, camp, or the community. I played Peter Pan, Miss Hannigan in Annie, Benny Southstreet in Guys and Dolls, the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, and lots of extremely memorable chorus parts-for instance, I was "girl number two" in Fiddler on the Roof-the one who said "We heard about your sister, Chava". I didn't care -I just wanted to be on stage. Waiting backstage before curtain call, after giving my all in a performance, was the best feeling I knew. In seventh grade I started taking magic lessons, and by eighth grade I was making all my own spending money by performing at kids' birthday parties as a clown named Tallulah. I liked the freedom of wearing all that grease-paint-I could be as wacky and un-cool as I wanted. I tried dance but felt so clumsy. I faked a sprained ankle to get out of the recital. I took voice lessons which made me a little light-headed (and I was afraid of the voice teacher's growling, drooling Doberman) and both saxophone and piano, neither of which I ever practiced. I did well in school but started a lot of my work at the last minute, in a crazy mad dash, so that it was never late but there were usually careless errors or areas I had to fudge. I had this idea that to work hard at something was sort of a negative, an admission that I didn't have natural talent. If I wasn't going to be Mozart and have the music (or dance, or math, or social studies term paper, or whatever) channeled through me from God, then I was just embarrassing myself by all that workmanlike effort. I didn't get over that idea until after college, by the way.
Career Ambitions
I never really planned to be a writer. I planned to be a financial wizard after learning about option-spreading at age 10, then a poet after discovering Shakespeare at 11. After overhearing "the real power is held by the lobbyists" on a class trip to Albany, I planned to become a lobbyist. Secretly, of course I always imagined myself as an actress, but that didn't seem hard or important enough, and also I worried I wasn't naturally gifted enough.
Parents
My parents were always great. I liked to make them proud, and they trusted me and supported my efforts and interests, which was sometimes weirdly tough. There was so little for me to rebel against.
As a Kid
When people ask me what I was as a kid, I always feel like my answer is at best incomplete.What are you like, as a kid? I'm still trying to figure out what I'm like as an adult.
Socially
Well, things went in waves. Sometimes I felt very "in", very aware of and tied in to the whole scene, excited by who liked whom, all the gossip, some of it less than kind. Other times I felt so alone-like there was nobody like me, nobody who liked me, nobody to talk to. And much of the time it was somewhere in between. A best friend when I was lucky, and a few people in each crowd I liked and who liked me. I resisted being classified as a brain or a jock or alternative or popular-too limiting. I would have to shut down too many parts of myself to be just one type.
Adolescence
I went through a very intense stage in middle school (Junior High). I worried about being too ordinary. I also worried about being too weird. I also worried about changing states of matter, my inability to be morally certain, ignorance (my own and world-wide), and making a fool of myself.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/rachel...
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 24, 2021
It was a book series that I enjoyed much when I was in my early teens.
March 25, 2024
I mentioned in my review for the first book in this series, how struck I am with Vail's way of showing the complexity of female friendships. I would say I'm equally as impressed with how well she explores the dynamics of family. For Zoe, it's what it's like to get lost as the youngest of five girls while living with two parents that I would consider not the best in terms of presence and engagement with their kids. For Morgan, it's living with a mother who is bitter over the circumstances of her life and channeling that bitterness through her daughter.
For CJ, the heroine of Please, Please, Please, it's living under the pressure and expectations of your parents (particularly her mother), seeking their approval and desiring to please them, but being unsure if the thing that seems to please them is the thing you really want to be doing. CJ desires what all young people desire, to be a part of the group, to belong, to be in the thick of it. She wants to play soccer and do three-legged races and not always have to worry about her turnout or protecting her ankles. It's not about playing soccer or being like other kids, but about the camaraderie, the community, the experience. And CJ feels like she's missing it.
I'm sure some reading this book might think the trade-off she desires to make is foolish, or that she's getting a bum deal, trading her legitimate talent for being part of the crowd. And yet, each and every one of us experiences the same pull to belonging as CJ does. We all want to be part of the crowd in some way, even if we wouldn't admit it.
And I guess that's another thing I really love about these three books. That they are universal, relevant to young girls and adult women. At least, they're relevant and universal to me.
For CJ, the heroine of Please, Please, Please, it's living under the pressure and expectations of your parents (particularly her mother), seeking their approval and desiring to please them, but being unsure if the thing that seems to please them is the thing you really want to be doing. CJ desires what all young people desire, to be a part of the group, to belong, to be in the thick of it. She wants to play soccer and do three-legged races and not always have to worry about her turnout or protecting her ankles. It's not about playing soccer or being like other kids, but about the camaraderie, the community, the experience. And CJ feels like she's missing it.
I'm sure some reading this book might think the trade-off she desires to make is foolish, or that she's getting a bum deal, trading her legitimate talent for being part of the crowd. And yet, each and every one of us experiences the same pull to belonging as CJ does. We all want to be part of the crowd in some way, even if we wouldn't admit it.
And I guess that's another thing I really love about these three books. That they are universal, relevant to young girls and adult women. At least, they're relevant and universal to me.
June 25, 2011
Cornelia Jane Hurley, or CJ, as she's more commonly knowsn, loves ballet. She lives, breathes, and eats ballet. But now that she's in seventh grade, she stupidly questions her hobbies. She wants to be normal. She wants to play soccer like everybody else and eat pizza and junk food like all her friends. But she can't just quit ballet. It's her duty to live up to her mother's dreams and dance in Lincoln Center. What can CJ possibly do?
I read this book in fourth grade, and I loved it. Rereading it, I don't see what I found appealing about CJ's shallow, conniving, wannabe personality. CJ is an absolute idiot. She loves ballet so much, and all of a sudden wants to quit so she can be "normal." Roughly, that translates to, "Hi, I'm CJ, and I hate myself and my talents and have no self-esteem whatsoever." Don't read this book. Don't look at this book. If you see this book in a store or in the library, RUN FOR YOUR FREAKING LIFE. Your sanity will thank you.
I read this book in fourth grade, and I loved it. Rereading it, I don't see what I found appealing about CJ's shallow, conniving, wannabe personality. CJ is an absolute idiot. She loves ballet so much, and all of a sudden wants to quit so she can be "normal." Roughly, that translates to, "Hi, I'm CJ, and I hate myself and my talents and have no self-esteem whatsoever." Don't read this book. Don't look at this book. If you see this book in a store or in the library, RUN FOR YOUR FREAKING LIFE. Your sanity will thank you.
September 4, 2013
I purchased the first and second book in this series as part of the scholastic book club in elementary school. It came with a replica of the friendship ring, a granny knot in silver, which I wore well into high school.
This was the most memorable book in the series. It is about a ballerina with frizzy hair and bleeding toes from dedicated dancing. I admired her.
The characters in these books aren't all that different from many young adult characters. They're unsure of themselves, they want friends, they're curious about new things, etc. However, I enjoyed reading about them and they passed the time nicely.
This was the most memorable book in the series. It is about a ballerina with frizzy hair and bleeding toes from dedicated dancing. I admired her.
The characters in these books aren't all that different from many young adult characters. They're unsure of themselves, they want friends, they're curious about new things, etc. However, I enjoyed reading about them and they passed the time nicely.
April 27, 2015
While reading this book, I couldn't help but think of the show dance moms and wondering if those children ever just get tired of dancing and want to be a "normal" kid for a change. I loved the conversations that she had with her friends and how much her friends just wanted her to come spend time with them, but she was too busy with ballet and her mom just didn't understand. However, I could also see where she didn't want to upset her mom either. While reading this, I kept picturing myself as a parent and saying that I would never keep my child pushed into something unless I knew she wanted to do it.
January 6, 2010
What a poor sorry excuse for a book! Argh; it was bad, awful, stupid... Why do authors write such poor stories for girls? I didn't like CJ, the main character, but I really disliked her mother, who is overbearing, and living her dream through her daughter of one day, hopefully becoming a famous ballet. I can't believe this is a series! I have no intention of reading anymore in this series or from this author.
Want to read
September 17, 2007I would love to read this book!!
October 16, 2007
I loved this book so much! It was cute, and funney. never do anything to make others happy. Follow your heart.(Without getting into trouble.)
April 26, 2008
i like the first one better
November 25, 2009
Circle of Friends starting grade 7. Nice Stories
March 26, 2015
Este libro no me agrado porque CJ no se expresaba ni le decía lo que realmente sentía a su mamá. Era muy dramática y no tomaba acción a nada. El final realmente me decepciono.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews