Scan barcode
A review by operasara
Codename: Dancer by Amanda Brice
4.0
Codename: Dancer (A Dani Spevac Mystery) is a cute middle grade book about Dani who has just arrived at a performing arts boarding school. Dani is lucky enough to be cast as a dancer in a dancing with the stars like reality show but there's a problem. Someone has been sabotaging the show. A set falls down injuring one of the dancers, a bomb is planted in Dani's purse and more. Dani and her friends decide to put their spying skills to the test so they can save the show.
This is an adorable book and the mystery was fun I tore through the book and found it very entertaining. The setting and characters were interesting enough and I liked that the main character was a dancer. However, the characters were super cliched. The art student was dark and dreary, the mean girl was nasty and conniving and the movie star was cute and funny with Dani falling for him in an instant. Dani eats nothing at all and is constantly skipping meals and her friends help her diagnose her eating disorder before the end of the book which she accepts rather easily (because all dancers have eating disorders). The dance sequences seemed like they were written by someone who has read a lot about dance or watched it on TV but not someone who was actually a dancer. The book is very short (150 pages) but it's currently available on Amazon for kindle for 1.99 and for that price it's a fun and quick read.
Appropriateness: This book is free of sex and substance abuse and the romance is limited to kissing. The main character has an eating disorder that's handled in the same way that one would be handled in a program for young teens. She skips a lot of meals and uses costuming as an excuse. Her friends notice and after a few point it out to her and she accepts it (after denying it for a while) eats some pasta and in the end she mentions that she'll be going to a nutritionist to get it in control. I would recommend this book to girls 10-13.
This is an adorable book and the mystery was fun I tore through the book and found it very entertaining. The setting and characters were interesting enough and I liked that the main character was a dancer. However, the characters were super cliched. The art student was dark and dreary, the mean girl was nasty and conniving and the movie star was cute and funny with Dani falling for him in an instant. Dani eats nothing at all and is constantly skipping meals and her friends help her diagnose her eating disorder before the end of the book which she accepts rather easily (because all dancers have eating disorders). The dance sequences seemed like they were written by someone who has read a lot about dance or watched it on TV but not someone who was actually a dancer. The book is very short (150 pages) but it's currently available on Amazon for kindle for 1.99 and for that price it's a fun and quick read.
Appropriateness: This book is free of sex and substance abuse and the romance is limited to kissing. The main character has an eating disorder that's handled in the same way that one would be handled in a program for young teens. She skips a lot of meals and uses costuming as an excuse. Her friends notice and after a few point it out to her and she accepts it (after denying it for a while) eats some pasta and in the end she mentions that she'll be going to a nutritionist to get it in control. I would recommend this book to girls 10-13.