Friday, May 20, 2016

What is Brooks Benjamin reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Brooks Benjamin, author of My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights.

His entry begins:
I've been on a serious Middle Grade kick lately, barreling through some books that have definitely rocketed to the top of my favorites list. Some of the recents are Swing Sideways by Nanci Steveson, The Distance to Home by Jenn Bishop, and Howard Wallace, P.I. by Casey Lyall. All three of these have something in common that I crave every time I open a book: incredible characters. Nanci's book features two girls who form an unlikely friendship that...[read on]
About My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights, from the publisher:
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.
Visit Brooks Benjamin's website.

The Page 69 Test: My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights.

Writers Read: Brooks Benjamin.

--Marshal Zeringue