ELLIE AND THE BUNHEADS

Ellie, turning 13, is under pressure—a ballet audition, a milestone in her potential career, approaches. With ambitions for her daughter, Ellie's mother monitors her eating, attempts to choose her friends, and expects her to audition without necessarily taking Ellie's opinion into account. The pros and cons of a career in ballet are cleverly explored through several interviews Ellie conducts, with an enthusiastic child just starting out, a high-school senior who is giving up the life, and a dance teacher. Ellie, a girl of great individuality, chafes at the ``ugly'' aspects of competition and acts decisively to make her choice: to be the best in the dance world, where she ultimately feels at home. A paragraph of Ellie's comments on different aspects of her appearance opens each chapter; these underscore the obsessions encountered in the dance world, about which Ellie attempts to be sensible: She resolves to eat chocolate only on special occasions, ``like a day of the week that ends with y.'' Ellie's experiences and observations ring true, and the ways she solves her problems make for an admirable character. (Fiction. 11-13)