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Silver Shoes #1
And All That Jazz
Meet four very different girls who all have one thing in common – they love to dance!
Eleanor Irvin is ten years old, and dancing is her everything. Tap, ballet, lyrical, and ballroom – she's tried it all. But her favourite style, by far, is jazz.
When Miss Caroline, the owner of Silver Shoes Dance Studio, announces she will be selecting dancers to perform in the upcoming Jazz Groove Dance Competition, Ellie is over the moon! There's only one problem, she's not so good at auditions. Actually, there might be a few problems – Ellie's dance enemy, Jasmine, seems determined to ruin her chances and the new girl, Ashley, is really talented. Will Ellie be able to overcome her nerves and hold on to the spotlight?
Eleanor Irvin is ten years old, and dancing is her everything. Tap, ballet, lyrical, and ballroom – she's tried it all. But her favourite style, by far, is jazz.
When Miss Caroline, the owner of Silver Shoes Dance Studio, announces she will be selecting dancers to perform in the upcoming Jazz Groove Dance Competition, Ellie is over the moon! There's only one problem, she's not so good at auditions. Actually, there might be a few problems – Ellie's dance enemy, Jasmine, seems determined to ruin her chances and the new girl, Ashley, is really talented. Will Ellie be able to overcome her nerves and hold on to the spotlight?
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Samantha-Ellen Bound
20 books24 followersSam-Ellen Bound is an author, writer and editor who mostly writes middle grade and junior fiction. She grew up in Tasmania and is currently based in Melbourne, Australia.
She has always worked with books, including in the publishing industry as a bookseller for academic and independent bookstores, and in a variety of production, marketing, reviewing and blogging roles.
Her short stories have won national awards and been published in literary journals.
Sam-Ellen is a graduate of RMIT's Professional Publishing & Editing program, and has a Masters in Editing and Communications from the University of Melbourne.
Sam-Ellen is proud to champion #LoveOzYa and #LoveOzMG.
In Sam-Ellen’s spare time you can find her ballroom dancing, racking up library fines from unreturned books, hiking, and cooing to her vegetables and herbs. She is the proud mother of one rabbit, small in stature but big in attitude.
Her favourite themes to explore are coming-of-age stories, mental health, folklore and mythology and magic realism.
Sam-Ellen is the author of Silver Shoes, a junior fiction dance series, and What the Raven Saw, a timeless tale for both children and adults. Her four-part middle grade fantasy adventure series, Seven Wherewithal Way, will be out in October 2021.
She has always worked with books, including in the publishing industry as a bookseller for academic and independent bookstores, and in a variety of production, marketing, reviewing and blogging roles.
Her short stories have won national awards and been published in literary journals.
Sam-Ellen is a graduate of RMIT's Professional Publishing & Editing program, and has a Masters in Editing and Communications from the University of Melbourne.
Sam-Ellen is proud to champion #LoveOzYa and #LoveOzMG.
In Sam-Ellen’s spare time you can find her ballroom dancing, racking up library fines from unreturned books, hiking, and cooing to her vegetables and herbs. She is the proud mother of one rabbit, small in stature but big in attitude.
Her favourite themes to explore are coming-of-age stories, mental health, folklore and mythology and magic realism.
Sam-Ellen is the author of Silver Shoes, a junior fiction dance series, and What the Raven Saw, a timeless tale for both children and adults. Her four-part middle grade fantasy adventure series, Seven Wherewithal Way, will be out in October 2021.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 17, 2015
Eleanor is 10 years old and loves dancing. She’s extra excited about the upcoming jazz dancing competition, but worried about the stress of auditioning and competing.
Children’s dancing books are a sub-genre which I’ve read a lot. There’s some wonderful, thoughtful books within that sub-genre. This wasn’t one of them. The bones of the story were fine – a competition, the stress of competing. The descriptions of actually dancing were wonderful – this author did a wonderful job of explaining how dance can make you feel. But there were just too many things I disliked about the book.
First and foremost, the main character was an insufferable bully. She made life difficult for the new girl in the class, she was awful about other girls. This might be the way things are in the post-‘Dance Moms’ dance world, but it makes for a horrible character who you don’t care about at all. I particularly disliked how she was never really called on her behaviour – her dance teacher must be running a particularly toxic school if that behaviour was the norm.
I’m also not sure if the flow of the story worked for such a short book. When you’re have a book of this length, the story needs to be tight and impeccable – it might look like an easy thing to write, but it’s incredibly hard to write short novels well. I think this could have been more focused.
I feel I must discuss some casual racism I encountered in the book. While I appreciate the author including characters of different backgrounds, authors should take care that they aren’t just applying stereotypes – particularly those of a different culture. A character from Fiji is described as having ‘this afro hair’ which she wears in two plaits. An afro is generally considered a hairstyle, which is incompatible with the hairstyle of two plaits. It was a really lazy and incorrect way of describing the character’s hair which lumped Fijian culture with African American culture, instead of respecting the cultures for what they actually are. (In Fiji, the ‘afro’ hairstyle has it’s own word – buiniga).
This poor use of words and the nastiness of the main character really ruined what would have been the perfect book for me. I think in a time when we’re asking for more diverse books for children, we can also ask for diversity which doesn’t lurch into stereotypes.
Originally reviewed at Subversive Reader
Children’s dancing books are a sub-genre which I’ve read a lot. There’s some wonderful, thoughtful books within that sub-genre. This wasn’t one of them. The bones of the story were fine – a competition, the stress of competing. The descriptions of actually dancing were wonderful – this author did a wonderful job of explaining how dance can make you feel. But there were just too many things I disliked about the book.
First and foremost, the main character was an insufferable bully. She made life difficult for the new girl in the class, she was awful about other girls. This might be the way things are in the post-‘Dance Moms’ dance world, but it makes for a horrible character who you don’t care about at all. I particularly disliked how she was never really called on her behaviour – her dance teacher must be running a particularly toxic school if that behaviour was the norm.
I’m also not sure if the flow of the story worked for such a short book. When you’re have a book of this length, the story needs to be tight and impeccable – it might look like an easy thing to write, but it’s incredibly hard to write short novels well. I think this could have been more focused.
I feel I must discuss some casual racism I encountered in the book. While I appreciate the author including characters of different backgrounds, authors should take care that they aren’t just applying stereotypes – particularly those of a different culture. A character from Fiji is described as having ‘this afro hair’ which she wears in two plaits. An afro is generally considered a hairstyle, which is incompatible with the hairstyle of two plaits. It was a really lazy and incorrect way of describing the character’s hair which lumped Fijian culture with African American culture, instead of respecting the cultures for what they actually are. (In Fiji, the ‘afro’ hairstyle has it’s own word – buiniga).
This poor use of words and the nastiness of the main character really ruined what would have been the perfect book for me. I think in a time when we’re asking for more diverse books for children, we can also ask for diversity which doesn’t lurch into stereotypes.
Originally reviewed at Subversive Reader
November 24, 2018
The title is an ear-worm for the musical Chicago and one can almost picture the clip from the movie when you see the title, but having said that, this book is about as far removed from the plot of Chicago, with the exception of dancing.
Well this is a dancing book for the younger set, with four characters, and one would expect different books will feature on different characters.
Not too bad, fairly predictable, but not terrible.
It really is not all that Jazz though!!
Well this is a dancing book for the younger set, with four characters, and one would expect different books will feature on different characters.
Not too bad, fairly predictable, but not terrible.
It really is not all that Jazz though!!
July 6, 2016
For my first foray into children's novels about dancing, I did enjoy this one. Ellie is a likeable character who suffers from a lot of anxiety about wanting to be the best. She wasn't always the nicest person (suffering from jealousy, and even being mean to some of the other girls), which I thought made a good change from all those super-nice girl characters I've read about in children's books before. All in all, this is the kind of book I can see many young readers enjoying! Especially anyone interested in dance, as it did get pretty technical at times!
November 9, 2014
Advanced reading copy. Will hit the spot for many young girls - traumas of being the best, jealousy, insecurity etc. Includes glossary of jazz terms.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews