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Tap Dancing at the Bluebird: A Novel
“An epic novel about lives intertwined, unraveled, and re-woven, driven by the power of dance that shapes and transforms personal histories.” —Kimi Okada, Tony Award-nominated Choreographer, Dancer, Director of ODC School
“Kip and Mattie’s story crosses time and distance to weave a beautiful and deeply moving portrait of both a nation in flux and of personal resilience.” —Sheri T. Joseph, author of Edge of the Known World, a USA Today Booklist best-seller and Winner of the 2024 American Fiction Awards for Best New Fiction
In a coming-of-age story, young Mattie and Kip tap dance and ride the rails during the Great Depression. Separated by a perceived betrayal and a train crash, the two friends lose each other for a lifetime. At 99, Mattie recalls the roving youth who set her life in motion and confides her deepest regrets to her granddaughter, who discovers lessons in the past for present challenges. With rhythms of tap, modern, and social dancing, the novel’s cadence draws readers through a century of change in America, bringing us to wonder if our two dancers might ever see each other again. The story turns upon the uplifting Is there still time, in this lifetime, to love and forgive?
About the Author
Christine Walker has an MFA in Writing and Literature in Fiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars and an MA in Creative Arts Interdisciplinary from San Francisco State University. A visual artist, she is also the author of "A Painter’s Cultivating the Creative Life" (Warner Books), a consultant in design and strategic visual facilitation with corporations and nonprofits, and a writing teacher.
Praise for Tap Dancing at the Bluebird
“Beautifully rendered, Tap Dancing at the Bluebird is a heartfelt evocation of time, place and family with prose that shimmers and characters that resonate across the generations. Walker manages to capture both the desperation and hope of those who endured the Great Depression and the profound place of memory and longing in bringing those stories alive for contemporary audiences. In Mattie, the story’s fearless narrator, Walker has drawn an unforgettable character who will live with you long after you have closed ‘Bluebird’s’ pages.” —Ken Wells, author of Meely LaBauve and Swamped!
“I like the way [Christine] captures how every little thing matters and how a person of goodwill and heart can get through difficult times so much better than a self-centered person. The entire novel with the re- found love reminds me of a Shakespearean plot. We do believe in it because the author and characters compel us to.” —Barbara Baer, author of The Ice Palace Waltz and The Ballet Lover
“Tap Dancing at the Bluebird is a very satisfying story. I stayed interested to the end. Love, love, love these characters. I wanted to keep reading...didn’t want the story to end.” —Marlene Cullen, Editor of The Write Spot anthologies and host of The Writers Forum
“From the very beginning, I was interested in finding out Kip and Mattie’s story. I really felt the precarious times for people during the depression. Great descriptions of tap dancing! I could visualize and also hear the actual tapping.” —Susan Hillery, Library Specialist, Sonoma County Library
“Kip and Mattie’s story crosses time and distance to weave a beautiful and deeply moving portrait of both a nation in flux and of personal resilience.” —Sheri T. Joseph, author of Edge of the Known World, a USA Today Booklist best-seller and Winner of the 2024 American Fiction Awards for Best New Fiction
In a coming-of-age story, young Mattie and Kip tap dance and ride the rails during the Great Depression. Separated by a perceived betrayal and a train crash, the two friends lose each other for a lifetime. At 99, Mattie recalls the roving youth who set her life in motion and confides her deepest regrets to her granddaughter, who discovers lessons in the past for present challenges. With rhythms of tap, modern, and social dancing, the novel’s cadence draws readers through a century of change in America, bringing us to wonder if our two dancers might ever see each other again. The story turns upon the uplifting Is there still time, in this lifetime, to love and forgive?
About the Author
Christine Walker has an MFA in Writing and Literature in Fiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars and an MA in Creative Arts Interdisciplinary from San Francisco State University. A visual artist, she is also the author of "A Painter’s Cultivating the Creative Life" (Warner Books), a consultant in design and strategic visual facilitation with corporations and nonprofits, and a writing teacher.
Praise for Tap Dancing at the Bluebird
“Beautifully rendered, Tap Dancing at the Bluebird is a heartfelt evocation of time, place and family with prose that shimmers and characters that resonate across the generations. Walker manages to capture both the desperation and hope of those who endured the Great Depression and the profound place of memory and longing in bringing those stories alive for contemporary audiences. In Mattie, the story’s fearless narrator, Walker has drawn an unforgettable character who will live with you long after you have closed ‘Bluebird’s’ pages.” —Ken Wells, author of Meely LaBauve and Swamped!
“I like the way [Christine] captures how every little thing matters and how a person of goodwill and heart can get through difficult times so much better than a self-centered person. The entire novel with the re- found love reminds me of a Shakespearean plot. We do believe in it because the author and characters compel us to.” —Barbara Baer, author of The Ice Palace Waltz and The Ballet Lover
“Tap Dancing at the Bluebird is a very satisfying story. I stayed interested to the end. Love, love, love these characters. I wanted to keep reading...didn’t want the story to end.” —Marlene Cullen, Editor of The Write Spot anthologies and host of The Writers Forum
“From the very beginning, I was interested in finding out Kip and Mattie’s story. I really felt the precarious times for people during the depression. Great descriptions of tap dancing! I could visualize and also hear the actual tapping.” —Susan Hillery, Library Specialist, Sonoma County Library
348 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 3, 2025
6 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 29, 2025
Christine Walker has given us a heartfelt, perfectly paced novel with engaging characters, a compelling story, and an underlying faith in the transformative power of family, kindness and community. Inspired by her grandmother's Depression-era writings and reflections, the author captures the optimistic spirit that saw her family through these dark days while still conveying the stark challenges of the era. With dance as the backdrop across the decades, the book also makes an important case for dance and physical expression as essential to the human spirit.
February 14, 2025
A Warm and Welcoming Story
This is a wonderful book—one that feels like a story shared over coffee with a good friend. It’s full of warmth, sincerity, and the kind of people you’d want to know.
The book opens with Kip dancing into the lives of the Toft family in 1932, bringing energy and change. Set during the Great Depression, it paints a world of hardworking, resilient people who meet challenges with creativity and determination.
As I sat down to write this, I had to check whether the book was written in the first person - I didn’t remember because it felt so intimate—like the author was personally telling me their family’s story. I felt the struggles of the Depression in a way I’ve only heard described by those who lived through it: not just hardship, but also hope.
It reminded me of stories I’ve heard from friends whose families were part of Roosevelt’s WPA—people who found ways to keep going, to build, to create. This is the kind of book that lingers with you, one you’ll want to tell others about.
This is a wonderful book—one that feels like a story shared over coffee with a good friend. It’s full of warmth, sincerity, and the kind of people you’d want to know.
The book opens with Kip dancing into the lives of the Toft family in 1932, bringing energy and change. Set during the Great Depression, it paints a world of hardworking, resilient people who meet challenges with creativity and determination.
As I sat down to write this, I had to check whether the book was written in the first person - I didn’t remember because it felt so intimate—like the author was personally telling me their family’s story. I felt the struggles of the Depression in a way I’ve only heard described by those who lived through it: not just hardship, but also hope.
It reminded me of stories I’ve heard from friends whose families were part of Roosevelt’s WPA—people who found ways to keep going, to build, to create. This is the kind of book that lingers with you, one you’ll want to tell others about.
June 2, 2025
A compelling mix of both historical and contemporary fiction, TAP DANCING AT THE BLUEBIRD brings the reader into the decade-spanning relationship of Mattie, a young girl growing up in Kansas City of the 1930s, and Kip, an unexpected visitor to her family’s restaurant, The Bluebird, who ends up staying long enough to teach Mattie how to tap dance as well as inspires emotional ties that hold him to her heart even long after he’s gone.
Author Christine Walker brings touching detail to the various relationships in the story, as well as sets her time and place with clarity and imagination. We can feel the tenor of that anxious era before the war, sense the struggles of families dealing with the Depression; experience the joy that comes even amidst the challenges of that time, even hear the “click clack” of Kip’s tap shoes as he takes young Mattie through the steps of one dance or another. Rich and evocative, we become immersed in the story.
As the time trajectory of the story pulls us forward, dramatic events steer us into new places, as tragic circumstances occur and evolving life brings us into the contemporary. We continue to follow Mattie as a grown woman with a panoply of life experiences, an enduring love of dance, and now a family of her own, with a granddaughter, Genet, getting married and gathering the circle together. Wanting to know more about her grandmother, Genet queries her about her life, which connects us to those early years but also opens the present to characters whose origin stories pique our interest, wondering just who they might be and how they connect to Mattie in the present. Stunning twists and secrets are revealed, bringing this epic story to a deeply satisfying conclusion. A wonderful read I highly recommend.
Author Christine Walker brings touching detail to the various relationships in the story, as well as sets her time and place with clarity and imagination. We can feel the tenor of that anxious era before the war, sense the struggles of families dealing with the Depression; experience the joy that comes even amidst the challenges of that time, even hear the “click clack” of Kip’s tap shoes as he takes young Mattie through the steps of one dance or another. Rich and evocative, we become immersed in the story.
As the time trajectory of the story pulls us forward, dramatic events steer us into new places, as tragic circumstances occur and evolving life brings us into the contemporary. We continue to follow Mattie as a grown woman with a panoply of life experiences, an enduring love of dance, and now a family of her own, with a granddaughter, Genet, getting married and gathering the circle together. Wanting to know more about her grandmother, Genet queries her about her life, which connects us to those early years but also opens the present to characters whose origin stories pique our interest, wondering just who they might be and how they connect to Mattie in the present. Stunning twists and secrets are revealed, bringing this epic story to a deeply satisfying conclusion. A wonderful read I highly recommend.
January 8, 2026
In 1932, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, Elliot Toft and his family struggle. Elliot, formerly an architect, now owns the Bluebird Cafe in Kansas City. He and his family work there tirelessly, serving up food and friendship to paying customers as well as drifters and transients.
Elliot sometimes provides a temporary place to stay for men who pass through town. One day, a young man named Kip Kelly enters the restaurant looking for work in exchange for a meal. He does some painting and odd jobs, and is soon offered a room in Elliot’s house.
Mattie, Elliot’s daughter, aged “almost thirteen”, discovers that Kip is a dancer. A tap dancer. And soon, she is learning the steps from him. He is a bright spot amid the burdens of poverty.
One day, this unselfish and sharing family discovers that the unthinkable has happened. A THEFT. Valuable family heirlooms. How could anyone do such a thing??
In 2020, Genet, Mattie’s granddaughter, wants to write Mattie’s memoir. Genet is the daughter of Charles and Amoy (Mattie’s daughter).
This serendipitous novel offers a heartwarming look at the topsy-turvy world of worry, ambition, friendship, hope, and the love of family
I read this library book, originally published by Sibylline Press, 2025
Elliot sometimes provides a temporary place to stay for men who pass through town. One day, a young man named Kip Kelly enters the restaurant looking for work in exchange for a meal. He does some painting and odd jobs, and is soon offered a room in Elliot’s house.
Mattie, Elliot’s daughter, aged “almost thirteen”, discovers that Kip is a dancer. A tap dancer. And soon, she is learning the steps from him. He is a bright spot amid the burdens of poverty.
One day, this unselfish and sharing family discovers that the unthinkable has happened. A THEFT. Valuable family heirlooms. How could anyone do such a thing??
In 2020, Genet, Mattie’s granddaughter, wants to write Mattie’s memoir. Genet is the daughter of Charles and Amoy (Mattie’s daughter).
This serendipitous novel offers a heartwarming look at the topsy-turvy world of worry, ambition, friendship, hope, and the love of family
I read this library book, originally published by Sibylline Press, 2025
June 16, 2025
A man named Kip wanders into The Bluebird, a Kansas City restaurant, a vagabond looking to work for a meal. He stays on in the restaurant, and by teaching young Mattie to tap dance, changes her life forever. Vivid prose anchors us in every scene of Tap Dancing at the Bluebird, whether in the restaurant, on the train, in New York City or San Francisco. This story is rare because it is about a happy family, not a dysfunctional one, but one that falls on hard times, and with a nest too cozy to restrain Mattie from spreading her wings. Kip has not only enlivened Mattie’s feet but lit up her heart, a flame that lasts a lifetime. Mattie is still going strong at 99 when Genet, her granddaughter, urges her to share stories about her life. I can’t go farther, or I’ll give away the end. So I urge you to go on this delightful, moving reading journey (you will want to dance your way through it) and experience one of the most deftly plotted and heart-warming endings ever. The characters are complicated and real and will stay with you. Highly recommend!
January 31, 2025
What a sweeping tale of America, from the Great Depression all the way to contemporary New York! Connecting these disparate times through dance was a clever way to tell a story. I found the characters compelling, bright and lovable, the settings sharp and beautifully crafted, and the tale of two souls who must find each other again across the years as compelling as any beloved romance. The tap dancing sequences stay with me, months after having read the novel. Well done!
October 10, 2025
This novel is a beautifully written, nostalgic journey through time and memory. Mattie’s reflections on love, loss, and forgiveness are deeply touching, and the backdrop of the Great Depression adds richness and texture to her story. The rhythm of dance woven throughout gives the narrative a unique heartbeat. It’s a tender, hopeful reminder that it’s never too late to heal, forgive, and rediscover what truly matters.
January 3, 2025
I enjoyed this historical fiction. Great characters, late-in-life romance.
February 5, 2025
A brilliant book that makes you think: about history, struggle, people and society. I highly recommend it.
November 11, 2025
I love books inspired by family history. Inspired by her grandmother's diaries, Christine Walker tells both a coming-of-age story of a teen girl, Mattie, and a late-life tale of second chances. The story explores how fateful events and special people who come into our lives in our youth, even if only for a short time, can have repercussions that reverberate decades later. I particularly loved the Depression era portion of the story, the harkening back to the can-do grit of the era, the chemistry and excitement of first love, and daring to dream big because there was nothing to lose. A good book for readers interested in historical fiction, family sagas, and stories with a strong sense of place.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews