Come a Stranger — Cynthia Voigt

Mina Smiths lives to dance, so a scholarship to ballet camp seems the answer to her dreams. She doesn't mind being the only black girl in the camp -- that is, until she learns she'll never be a classical dancer. It's then that Mina begins to face her feelings about being black, and as she does, she transfers her passion for dance to Tamer Shipp, the summer minister for her church. Mina knows that she's a child and Tamer is a grown-up man with a family, but she still sees in their friendship a path to a new self-awareness, and a successful future that doesn't forsake the values of her childhood. Cynthia Voigt's incomparable mastery of character and community shines forth in this stirring novel from her acclaimed Tillerman series.