REENI’S TURN is the story of a skilled young dancer who struggles with lifelong shyness and performance anxiety, but still dreams of being in the spotlight. On top of those worries, her newly-developing body doesn’t match the ballerina posters on her bedroom wall that now seem to mock her—"You'll never be like us!"
Can Reeni find the courage she needs to dance in front of an audience just as she is?
IN THE SPOTLIGHT!
Chicago Jewish History, 2021
Children's Book Council Hot Off the Press, 2020
Midwest Book Review, Story Monsters Ink Shelf
University of Chicago Lab School 'Rites of Passage/Puberty' Curriculum 2021
Poetry for Children, Novels in Verse 2020
RACHEL KAMIN—Chicago Jewish History (Book Issue)
"The story addresses universal themes of emotional resilience, body acceptance, and the search for courage, identity, and voice. Jillian Bietz, at the Jewish Book Council, writes: "There is significant Jewish content in the book; Reeni’s family celebrates Shabbat and other holidays, and Reeni even expresses how dancing evokes emotion that parallels what she experiences at Yom Kippur services....
Carol Coven Grannick’s prose is elegant and impactful. Not one word is wasted in this heartfelt story."
While I worked on REENI'S TURN, I'm grateful to have been honored with:
Illinois Arts Council Grants 2018-19 and 2020-21
Ragdale Foundation Writer's Residency, 2016
Highlights Foundation Scholarship, Novel in Verse
Finalist 2016 Katherine Paterson Award at Hunger Mountain
Honorable Mention 2018 Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award
And more reviewers say...
“REENI'S TURN is a moving story of identity, courage, and self-acceptance. Grannick's verse spins with a dancer's ease: graceful and elegant, determined and powerful. Readers will connect with Reeni’s struggle to listen to her inner voice when the world threatens to drown it out, and applaud as she triumphs.”
—Lisa Jenn Bigelow, author of Hazel’s Theory of Evolution, Drum Roll, Please, and Starting From Here
“In lyrical, deeply moving verse, REENI'S TURN shares both the joy and beauty of dance and the cruel self-doubt caused by our culture's obsession with bodily appearance. This is an extraordinarily empowering book.”
—Claudia Mills, author of The Lost Language
“Reeni Rosenbloom leapt off the page and pirouetted straight into my heart. Her struggles with body image and the pressure to conform to society’s ideal were both achingly real and refreshingly honest. Every young girl needs to read this lyrical gem of a novel!”
—Jenny Meyerhoff, author of The Friendship Garden series, Playing Cupid
“Through beautifully crafted poetry, Carol Coven Grannick creates a MC who is strong yet vulnerable and highly relatable. REENI'S TURN artfully portrays the dance that is middle school--sometimes smooth, sometimes unstable, always growth-rendering.”
—Ami Polonsky, author of Gracefully Grayson, Threads, and Spin With Me
“Readers will not forget Reeni’s passion for dance, her struggles to honor that passion during the turbulence of changes in her life, and her quest to find the balance between body and courage. Carol Coven Grannick is not afraid to show readers a desperate Reeni. But she also gives us the joy of a dancing Reeni. A wonderful story."
—Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Bim, Bam, Bop…and Oona and the award-winning Snowflake Bentley