While I Danced

By Lynn Slaughter


A nerve-wracking audition for a summer ballet workshop reminds fifteen-year-old Cass how much she wishes her mom hadn’t died so young. Her dad isn’t exactly Mr. Encouragement when it comes to her dancing, and he shuts down whenever she asks about her mother. Cass feels as though her life is a puzzle with a giant piece missing.

Dancing has become her safe place where she doesn’t have to think about why her father won’t discuss her mother, or why her best friend and boyfriend ...