Laurence Yep

Isabelle, who attends a performing arts school in Washington, D.C., with her older sister, Jade, has a passion for ballet dancing but lacks self-confidence.

Isabelle

Heaven Adore

I officially deem the movie better than the book. I'm sorry, but there was a lot of dislikable things.

For starters, I will say that the character development was just "bleh." There was nothing very unique about each character and they all seemed to be the same. Although Isabelle's sister Jade was "perfect," it was displayed as well as the movie. And Isabelle's best friend, Luisa, was a bit aggressive for my taste. She would get roweled up over little things and I know that it was because of her older brother not keeping in touch with her regularly, but still, I thought that was a bit unnecessary.

Next, the bully was not truly a bully. In the movie, Renata was constantly telling Isabelle how bad of a dancer she was and that she didn't belong at Anna Hart. Because of that, Isabelle felt less confidence as a dancer and that was what was making her mess up all the time in ballet class. However, in the book, Renata hardly appeared in the book and when she did, the things that she was say was so juvenile; it's not the type of talk that would make someone feel less confident.

Also, I was not a fan of the illustrations. Although they were sprinkled, none of the other American Girl books I've read had them, so that made the book feel even more juvenile. 

Those were the two biggest issues for me. Aside from that, I wish the settings were more descriptive and that the parents appeared more (they did in the movie, especially the Mom).

I was super disappointed with this book. I'm not sure if it's because of my age or if it was just a bad book. Nevertheless, I don't think I'll read the other 2 books in the series.

Isabelle

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