Maybe Next Year

by Amy Hest

Kate, who lives with her grandmother on Manhattan's Upper West Side, wants to be a ballet dancer, but when her dancing comes into conflict with her home life, she begins to wonder where her commitment really lies.

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Amy Hest is a three-time winner of the Christopher Medal and winner of the BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK Award. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet little 80s book about a would-be dancer with a would-be boyfriend and a family who don't fully understand her dreams. I really love reading these for the outdated perspectives...oh, that sounds mean, but it's like this: Kate is twelve and goes to ballet class once a week. She's been dancing for a few years, though it's not clear exactly how long. She takes a few extra classes for part of the book, when she's considering auditioning for a programme at the National Ballet School. In real life, at least now (not sure about the 80s), a class a week would be very little; serious dancers, even young ones, are in class multiple days a week. (Not that many people don't take a weekly class...just that these are treated as dancers with great potential, and the National Ballet School as the best in the city.) It's like in You Don't Have to Be a Perfect Girl, where the protagonist has had a few years of weekly ballet and suddenly her new gymnastics coach things she can go to the Olympics just because she learns one very basic skill quickly. Or, in Maybe Next Year, a character decides to open a cookie-baking business and is an immediate success, despite not having things like, oh, inspections from the Health Department or a proper business plan or whatever.

But what did work really well for me was how rounded the characters were. Kate has a little sister (who hates playing piano), they live with their grandmother, they're Jewish...all of these things play into the characters' actions and sometimes reactions, but they don't make up the entire story. Ballet isn't the entire story. Romance isn't the entire story. Kate wants a lot of things, and those things don't always align well. Her love interest is also a dancer, and his father doesn't approve (Peter shrugs unhappily. "To show me what a liberal parent he is, he said he won't forbid all the extra classes, but he will be 'exceedingly disappointed' in me if I do go on to the National Ballet School." (71)), but that's not all there is to Peter. So although there are a few things that raise an eyebrow...altogether it made for a satisfying, if slightly outdated, read.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been going through all my old books and reading them and this was an odd one. The main character has to make some big decisions about whether she will audition for a ballet school or not. Her family is Jewish and there are references to a lot of Jewish things, like Shabbat and whatnot. Also her grandmother's relationship with others was a big storyline and it was kind of all over the place for me. I know it is for a younger audience, but I generally enjoy reading these older books, but this one wasn't my favorite.

[Jessie V · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a childhood favorite of mine and I’ve passed it on to my young nieces. Such a lovely, innocent look into the life of a young girl.