My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights

by Brooks Benjamin

Overview

The perfect book for kids who are fans of Dancing with the Stars: Juniors! Football hero. Ninja freestyler. It's seventh grade. Anything is possible.

All Dillon wants is to be a real dancer. And if he wins a summer scholarship at Dance-Splosion, he’s on his way. The problem? His dad wants him to play football. And Dillon’s freestyle crew, the Dizzee Freekz, says that dance studios are for sellouts. His friends want Dillon to kill it at the audition—so he can turn around and tell the studio just how wrong their rules and creativity-strangling ways are.

At first, Dillon’s willing to go along with his crew’s plan, even convincing one of the snobbiest girls at school to work with him on his technique. But as Dillon’s dancing improves, he wonders: what if studios aren’t the enemy? And what if he actually has a shot at winning the scholarship? 

Dillon’s life is about to get crazy . . . on and off the dance floor in this kid-friendly humorous debut by Brooks Benjamin.

**

"I couldn't stop smiling. Equal parts hilarious and heartwarming, Dillon's journey to find his people and his place in the world will charm everyone lucky enough to come along for the ride."--Jessica Cluess, author of A Shadow Bright and Burning

“A rollicking, big-hearted breakdance of a book. It’s a story about friendship that’s got all the moves: humor both sly and slapstick, a diverse cast of characters, and a winning narrator who’s trying to learn how to follow his heart, find the beat, and dance his pants right off.” —Kate Hattemer, author of The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780553512533
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	04/11/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	387,236
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

In sixth grade, Brooks Benjamin formed a New Kids on the Block tribute dance crew called the New Kidz. He wasn’t that good at dancing. But now he’s got a new crew—his wife and their dog. They live in Tennessee, where he teaches reading and writing and occasionally busts out a few dance moves. He’s still not very good at it.

brooksbenjamin.com
@brooksbenjamin on Twitter

Read an Excerpt

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(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Brooks Benjamin.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Children's Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Praise for MY SEVENTH-GRADE LIFE IN TIGHTS:


"Equal parts jazz hands and karate chop, with a dash of football and a pirouette of pure heart. Dillon and the Dizzee Freekz are en pointe. This book will rock you! "--Kristin O'Donnell Tubb, author of The 13th Sign

"An earnest first novel with a solid message about finding out who you are on your own terms."--Kirkus

"A fresh and winning debut about the power of self-expression."--Booklist

From the Publisher

2016-02-02
Dillon's dad wants him to play football, his crew wants him to freestyle, but all he wants to do is dance, dance. Seventh grade proves to be anything but boring for 12-year-old Dillon Parker. A bench warmer on his school's football team, Dillon dances with his freestyle crew, the Dizzee Freekz, while secretly longing for the training and technique that can gain him admittance to Dance-Splosion, a prominent Tennessee studio. His crew members, studio dropouts themselves, loathe the restrictions of structured dance and see an opportunity to concoct a perfect revenge prank on their old studio. Dillon must audition for a coveted dance scholarship, win it, and use his acceptance speech to belittle Dance-Splosion and its silly rules. All goes according to plan until Dillon, under the tutelage of Dance-Splosion's best and haughtiest ballerina, starts to enjoy the dancer he's becoming. Benjamin's debut novel is a cross between Step Up and Mean Girls, with all of the requisite tropes found in a school drama, from arrogant cheerleaders and dimwitted jocks to anti-establishment rebels. The novel convincingly captures the herd mentality of the middle school years, when children rely on their friends to dictate how they dress and what their dreams should be, but some individual characterizations are less finely drawn than they should be. With the exception of the charismatic Haitian-Greek leader of Dillon's crew, the novel is not notably diverse. An earnest first novel with a solid message about finding out who you are on your own terms. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews