Dance Trap: The Complicated Life of Claudia Cristina Cortez

Claudia Cristina Cortez

by Diana G. Gallagher, Brann Garvey (Illustrator)

Its the first real dance at school, but none of the boys want to go to a fancy formal. Claudia realizes that they have to make the dance fun for everybody. She comes up with a great idea. It wont just be a dance, itll be an adventure, complete with prizes.

Genres: Realistic Fiction

88 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Diana G. Gallagher was an American author who wrote books for children and young adults. She also wrote the space opera The Alien Dark (1990), but was best known for her tie-in work for television properties including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Star Trek and The Secret World of Alex Mack, among others.

She was also a prolific filk creator, winning Pegasus Awards in 1986 and ’94. Gallagher won a Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist in 1988 under the name Diana Gallagher Wu. She sometimes also wrote under the name Diana Burke.

Born in 1946, in Paterson, New Jersey, she lived in Florida with her husband, the writer Martin R. Burke, who predeceased her in 2011. Gallagher was married four times; her third marriage was to author William F. Wu (divorced 1990).

Gallagher died December 2, 2021 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at 75 years of age.

Reviews

[Daisy Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3rd quarter choice book 2
I enjoyed reading dance trap for 3 reasons. One it was laid back and not to complicated to read. Two it was about a regular interesting situation. (It is hard to find a book like that.) And three it had other little life things going on. I did kind of get Claudia's friends mixed up, I didn't know which one liked Tommy for a section of the book. I really liked this book, but it wasn't my favorite book ever.

[Jayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book DANCE TRAP by Diana G. Gallagher, Claudia was having a dance for the seventh-grade. Claudia wanted Brad Turino to be her date to the dance,but Anna wanted the same thing. Now Claudia has to babysit Nick. Claudia asked Nick's mom to help her with dancing because she did not know how to dance well. Then Nick's mom helped her dance better. Will Claudia get Brad to dance with her at the seventh-grade dance?

[Adriana]

In these amassing book Dance Trap by Diana Gallagher Claudia is have her first dances in Pine Tree School. But there is a problem Anna and her friend Carla want to make a formal dance. Then Claudia find out that any of the boy will not come to the dance because the don't now to dance an they do not want to were suits. She try and thing of what to do to solve the problem. Will she ever if out?

[Shadai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shadai Austin
February 2012
Dance Trap
Diana Gallagher

Protagonist: Claudia Cortez, so nice but so mean. She doesn’t let anyone get to her. She is in the seventh grade. She has curly hair. She is Puerto Rican. She has 1 older brother, Jimmy and she lives with her parents. She has a cat too. Her best friends name is Monica.

Antagonist: Anna. Claudia’s enemy. Claudia thinks that Anna thinks she all that. She wants to be her friend because she is popular but Anna doesn’t like her. Anna is in seventh grade too. “ Everyone wants to be her friend at the school. “ Anna joined the dance comity just like Claudia.

Conflict: The main problem in the story is Claudia joined the dance comity first and then Anna joined the dance comity. There was about 6 people on he dance comity. Nobody really wanted Anna to be on the comity so they made a deal, they said if Anna voted for their choice about the theme of the dance then Anna wouldn’t have to do work and Anna didn’t want to do work anyways.. the other team said they would do the same thing for her if she voted but she said that they asked first. The other team had to come up with something that Anna wouldn’t mind doing that would help her get out of the way helping. Anna didn’t know who’s side to pick but she did say that she wanted to learn how to dance so they offered her to learned.

Theme: I think that the lesson is even though you think someone is mean.. they might turn out nice. Anna turned out nice to Claudia. She picked her team even though she rarely likes her. Another lesson learned is never bring a 7 year old to a dance/party ! Claudia brought Nick, the little boy that she babysits to the dance and it was kind of a disaster.

Setting: The times were during school, lunch, after school where they did some work. After school is when they met up for the dance comity. They most likely got to school at 8:00 and left probably at 3:00 or 4:00. Places where they met were Claudia’s tree house, her house sometimes, school, and the pizza place. The school gym was also occupied for the dance.

Plot: In the beginning, everything was all good. Everyone was happy. Claudia was excited about joining the dance comity. She didn’t think she would get it because she didn’t know much about dance. She begged Monica to join, but she didn’t want to join. There’s one person she hoped didn’t sign up but she knew wouldn’t. Anna.

Little did Claudia know that Anna did joined. They both got accepted though. Monica decided to enter and got in. Claudia was so mad that Anna joined. She did want to be her friend, but she didn’t want any trouble. Her and Anna weren’t exactly nice too each other. Anna was mean to her because she wasn’t popular . Claudia was working really good but Anna was messing everything up.
Finally, Anna stopped bothering her and actually helped her out. She gave her another vote for the theme of the dance. Claudia was so happy, she actually thought they were friends but they weren’t exactly. Anna had no choice but too be nice. She couldn’t get off of the comity now. In the end everyone got what they wanted and Claudia got to dance with her dream B♥Y.

Climax: In the beginning of the book, Anna was so mean and in the end of the book she changed. In the end of the book she was a little nice. It was a big change for her because she never talked to any one non-popular unless she was making fun of them. Now she was helping Claudia out. I guess she was getting tired of being mean.

Resolution: The problems were resolved by Anna changing her attitude. There is really no resolution. She is nice now and everyone likes her attitude. There will probably still be drama in the next chapter. The problems were only changed because of Anna !

[Nicole Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dance trap is about a couple of kids who are planning a dance. There is a fude going on about what type of dance. Either a dj dance or formal dance. They have to change the dance because the guys don't know how to dance and don't like a formal dance or a dj dance so they decided a jungle theme and the or teachers thought everyone how to dance and the dance was a success.

I like how the book is easy to read and it's funny. It has some action and comedy.

I recommend this book to people who like fiction and drama.

[Sabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book. Its about this 7th grade class and there having a school dance. The dance is a jungle dance and who ever wins the dances that they are suppose to do the boy and girl both wins this game called safiri i think its spelled. This one girl named Monica wanted to dance with dude named Brad and she finaly got the chance.

[Tanja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Claudia must work with friends & “enemies” to organize the 7th grade dance. Will they be able to settle their differences and convince the boys to come to the dance and dance? The book's format and topic are surely appealing to middle school girls but the characters were a bit too stereotypical for my liking and the plot too predictable.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

another new lower level book for our junior high students. this one actually had a cute plot and some character development. i think this would be a good read for some of my 7th grade girls.

[Kaitlyn Fauth · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome

[Dessie V]

It was good.

[Rose]

JF Gal

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

The part i'm up to is she is teaching her friend how to dance

[Gearldine]

In this amazing book, The Complicated Life of Claudia Cristina Cortez" Dance Trap" by Diana G. Gallagher. The main characters are Claudia, Becca, Monica, Mrs Gomez, Anna ,and Jenny.The boys didn't wanted to go to the 7th grade dance. I wounder if Anna is going to do something to Claudia because Brad danced with Claudia.

[Jocelyn Santana]

It was ingoyable