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Tamar, Erika.
ALPHABET CITY BALLET
New York : HarperTrophy, 1997.
IL 5-8, RL 5.9
ISBN 0064406687
Ten-year-old Marisol has never even thought of herself as a dancer until the day the teacher tells her class that two students from her school will be given scholarships to the Manhattan Ballet School. Now, suddenly, it’s something she wants terribly.  She makes it through the hurdle of first tryouts, then second tryouts, and finally, when the winners are announced, she is one of them.  She flies home to tell Papi and Luis, but they have bad news for her.  The classes are all the way downtown at Lincoln Center, much too far and too dangerous a trip for her to make alone.  Their jobs prevent them from accompanying her, and they can't afford to take the time off.  When it looks like Marisol’s dream will end before it even begins, she and the other winner, Desiree, find ways to help each other, and they both begin classes.  Ballet’s hard work that requires lots of training for your muscles, but Marisol loves it.  Just when things seem to be working out, Desiree’s family gets moved from the homeless shelter they're in to a better one.  Marisol is happy for them -- until she discovers that the move means that Desiree’s mother can no longer take her to ballet classes.  How much will Marisol sacrifice to keep her dream alive?  Find out in Alphabet City Ballet.  (Mary Lou Wallace, marylwal@bellsouth.net, East Aiken Elementary School, Aiken, SC)
SUBJECTS:     Brothers and sisters -- Fiction.
                        Ballet dancing -- Fiction.
                        Puerto Ricans -- New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction.
                        New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction.

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