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Along for the Ride #3
Center Stage
Kenya Jackson is a dancer. She can't help but groove to the beat of her best friend Cadence Hudson's summer concert tour sounds. But only offstage. That is, until the day Cadence needs her more than ever. Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards. Spellbound is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO.
48 pages, Library Binding
Published September 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 10, 2022
I think of all Lea Taddonio's Along for the Ride books, I liked Center Stage the most. This story is centered around the concept of stage fright and striving for perfection that is pushed on a child from their parents. I deeply appreciated this message, especially knowing how it has affected young girls involved in any form of the entertainment industry. Learning that you don't have to be perfect is a deeply important thing for kids to learn and I really appreciated that this was the direction taken in this book.
Summarization was less of an issue here, for instead of having the character present their short backstory to the reader, she is instead explaining her fear to her friends. I appreciated that approach a lot more than just having random flashbacks as it definitely made a difference in regards to the flow of the story overall. Again, this book was quite short and the lesson was reached fairly quickly. The solution to Kenya's stage fright is definitely reached too easily, but this is unsurprising considering the quick nature of the story and chapters overall.
Of course, as is the trend with these books, the font choices are definitely fun but also distracting. They put emphasis in odd places and can be harder to read at times, making this a series I would not recommend be given to readers who struggle at a third grade level. At the very least, I'd suggest reading these books together rather than simply having a child read it independently.
Summarization was less of an issue here, for instead of having the character present their short backstory to the reader, she is instead explaining her fear to her friends. I appreciated that approach a lot more than just having random flashbacks as it definitely made a difference in regards to the flow of the story overall. Again, this book was quite short and the lesson was reached fairly quickly. The solution to Kenya's stage fright is definitely reached too easily, but this is unsurprising considering the quick nature of the story and chapters overall.
Of course, as is the trend with these books, the font choices are definitely fun but also distracting. They put emphasis in odd places and can be harder to read at times, making this a series I would not recommend be given to readers who struggle at a third grade level. At the very least, I'd suggest reading these books together rather than simply having a child read it independently.
March 5, 2021
One of the dancers heard a snap, and Kenya needed to fill in for her her.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews