Leaping at Shadows

Gr 6-10—Set in an elite residential ballet school, these stories focus on five students and their friendships, their classes, and the mysteries they encounter in the haunted old building. In the first book, teachers are caught holding cultlike rituals to ward off a curse on the school; in book two, one of the dancers, in a slump, steals a pair of antique pointe shoes from a display case in hopes of improving her luck, but she fears, instead, that she has put a curse on her friends. The plots are a bit far-fetched, but no more so than other popular mystery series such as those by R. L. Stine. The competent writing is suitable to the genre and will appeal to older reluctant readers. Characterization is strong enough to create interest in each of the main characters. The dance terms and ballet-centric subplots give the series special appeal to balletomanes, but they don't so overwhelm the story lines that they will restrict the audience.—Maralita L. Freeny, District of Columbia Public Library