Starting from Here

In this artful follow-up to The Distance Home, Saunders illustrates the obstacles young women face as they grow up and search for fulfillment. In 1973, Rene, the 15-year-old daughter of a cattle buyer in Rapid City, S.D., is sent by her mother, Eve, to Phoenix, Ariz., to “make something of herself” at a rigorous ballet school. Though Rene is dedicated to her craft, she also has the typical longings of a teenage girl, including to fit in “like a paper doll in a chain” with the skinnier girls in her class. Gali Shead, whose family she’s staying with, and the other students relentlessly bully Rene out of jealousy for her superior skills, and Gali pushes Rene into disordered eating. At the end of the school year, the Sheads inform her that they won’t be able to host her the following year, which she assumes was Gali’s doing. She tries another school in Denver, one that her teacher in Phoenix bemoans, though her parents are happy to have her closer to home. Meanwhile, she holds out hope of moving to New York City and developing a career as a dancer, despite Eve’s insistence that she finish high school first. Saunders draws the reader in with understatement, showing how the emotionally intelligent Rene reads the world and tries to find her place in it. This tender coming-of-age tale is worth a look. Agent: Esther Newberg, CAA. (Aug.)