A Star for the Latecomer

16-year-old Brooke Hillary, an aspiring dancer, is being pushed on by her mother. Mrs Hillary, however, has cancer and the book covers her last few months of longing to see Brooke start forward to stardom. Mr Z's solos are also obsessed with death and parents warping kids' lives but this is less quirky, jokeless. It's not great but there's a clear market for it in schools. Schmaltzy, indifferently written, needs editing... yet the hardest part of reading it is turning to page on and the subject matter is the kind that always pulls them. Get some in.