Staff Pick
Harper and her friend have planned for years to become professional dancers. Not knowing what else to do when this fails, Harper ends up going to McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Up to this Pointe is a powerful and touching novel about adjusting your dreams and not giving up. Recommended By Richard C., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A refreshingly original contemporary YA, unlike anything readers have
seen before. Perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson, John Corey Whaley, and
Libba Bray.
She had a plan. It went south.
Harper is a dancer. She and her best friend, Kate, have one goal:
becoming professional ballerinas. And Harper won’t let anything—or
anyone—get in the way of The Plan, not even the boy she and Kate are
both drawn to.
Harper is a Scott. She’s related to Robert
Falcon Scott, the explorer who died racing Amundsen and Shackleton to
the South Pole. So when Harper’s life takes an unexpected turn, she
finagles (read: lies) her way to the icy dark of McMurdo Station...
in Antarctica. Extreme, but somehow fitting — apparently she has always
been in the dark, dancing on ice this whole time. And no one warned her.
Not her family, not her best friend, not even the boy who has somehow
found a way into her heart. It will take a visit from Shackleton’s
ghost — the explorer who didn’t make it to the South Pole, but who got all
of his men out alive — to teach Harper that success isn’t always what’s
important, sometimes it’s more important to learn how to fail
successfully.
Review
“A moving love letter to dance, dreams, and San Francisco.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“One of the most breathtaking explorations of navigating heartbreak that I’ve ever read. This is one for the ages.” Martha Brockenbrough, author of The Game of Love and Death
About the Author
JENNIFER LONGO was a ballerina from ages eight to eighteen, until she
eventually (reluctantly) admitted her talent for writing exceeded her
talent for dance. The author of Six Feet Over It, she holds an
MFA in Writing for Theater from Humboldt State University, where her
obsessive love of Antarctica produced her thesis play about Antarctica’s
Age of Exploration. Jennifer lives in Seattle with her husband and
daughter and writes about writing at jenlongo.com.