Dance, Kayla! — Darwin McBeth Walton

* DANCE, KAYLA! is an engaging novel about a young girl's courage--how she coped with difficult changes in her life. Kayla dreams about her deceased mother--who she never knew--and lives with hope that her absentee, dancing father comes back into her life. Her grandmother's sudden death robs Kayla of the only mother she had known and she leaves her beloved farm in to begin a new life with her cousins and a big, inner-city school in . Through it all Kayla clings to her dream of becoming a ballerina!

* Reviewers give DANCE, KAYLA! five stars! It was chosen one of the best of children's books by the Banks Street College Selection Committee. It's a favorite of Mothers' and Daughters' book clubs, and kids say they love it! One sixth grade boy said, “Reading Kayla! changed my life!”