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Music Boxes, by Tonja Drecker

If "ballet horror (not the gory kind, but the situational kind) for young readers" is your thing, Music Boxes, by Tonja Drecker (Dancing Lemur, February, 2019) might be one you'll enjoy lots.

Lindsay's parents have put her little sister first, moving to New York city so that she can go to the Julliard school.  Lindsay is proud of her sister's talent, but she's devastated that her own ballet training has been disrupted.  There's no money for her to go to a good school in New York, so instead her parents sign her up for classes at the community center.  Which isn't the same.

But then she meets Madame Destinee, who has her own ballet school just around the corner.  Madame thinks Lindsay has talent just by looking at her, and offers her a place in her school.  There Lindsay dances like she never has before, in the company of other wildly talented young dancers.

But it is a very strange school.  The midnight performances, Madame's constant offerings of delicious food, and stranger things that are absolutely impossible.....and Lindsay, though drugged by both the dancing and the praise, and the food, keeps a clear enough head to figure out that she and the other kids are in terrible danger.

It isn't just beautiful music boxes that Madame is collecting....

It's a fast, straight-forward read (by which I mean--there is the one plot, and the one mystery, and we see it unfold as Lindsay does without any twistyness....so basically, the reader gets to sit back and enjoy the ride).  So it's a good one for kids who love creepy!  I myself would have enjoyed it more it had been less straight-forward; I would have liked Madame to be a little more well-developed as a character, and felt the friendships (and anti-friendships) Lindsay makes at the school were pretty predictable.  So for me it was fine, and I can imagine lots of kids (especially young ballet students) loving it, but it's not one I'll feel the need to re-read to get more out of it than I did the first time.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

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