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| Plot Summary of Shadow Dancing |
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"Emma Kate Thomas, a seventeen-year-old ballerina from a small midwestern conservatory, leaves her parents and dance partner behind when a world-famous director entices her to New York. But her imagined waltz to centerstage turns tango as soon as she arrives. Three male mentors vie to become her partner, each exacting his price, and she forges a family of immigrant women to prop her sagging spirit. As stagelight strikes, Emma Kate sees her shadow, recalls the defining moment of her childhood buried under the patchwork of her parents' love, and rediscovers the "dance" she learned in the heartland. "
Nancy Pinard, Resident Scholar
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"Emma Kate Thomas, a teenaged ballerina from the Midwest, gets the chance to move to New York and study, to see the sights and meet new people, to discover life without her parents and love on her own. What makes the book a great read is not only the care and insight with which Pinard exposes Emma and her circle of dancers and friends, making them real and flawed and wonderfully human, as well as the era and setting, but also the fact that Pinard is the type of writer who can toss off a stunning insight such as "But I'd hate to plan my life around a failure of imagination" within a casual conversation. Shadow Dancing reminds us how we got where we are: by dreaming, working, stumbling, learning. It's a beaut of a novel."
Shawn Behlen, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Shadow Dancing |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- upbeat
Time/era of story
- 1960's-1970's
Life of a profession:
- dancer
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- student
- artist
Age:
- a teen
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- an organization
Profession/status:
- artist
Eccentric/Smart/Dumb:
Yes
Eccentric:
- obsessed
- eccentric
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 3 (some)
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
- Midwest
Water?
Yes
City?
Yes
City:
- New York
- dirty, grimy (like New York)
- dangerous
- rude people
Small town?
Yes
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
- descript of kissing
- touching of anatomy
- impregnation/reproduction
- descript. of female anat. (the big B's)
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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