Marta is seventeen and wants to join a ballet company. This opening to a Young Adult book gripped me right away. The early start to a life of dedication means that this will be no ordinary girl. Working her way through a nerve-wracking audition in her home town of Seattle, Marta Selbryth keeps her head and dances without standing out to show that she can fit into a line.

84 RIBBONS continues as Marta can do nothing but wait to hear her results. She's working hard to graduate from high school and applying for store clerk positions, because competition in ballet is fierce. The year is 1957. Her mother and she are thrilled when the company accepts the young dancer, and she makes provisions to live away from home in Billings, Montana. Saving the ribbons from every pair of pointe shoes she's worn, Marta reckons she'll need eighty-four ribbons before she can perform solos.

Life doesn't flow smoothly with missing luggage, wrong information, autocratic intructors, a rented room to find and not much money, but people are kind and Marta appreciates the help she's given. Nobody can help her with dancing however - that's all up to her. Her diet is light and simple, barely enough for a growing teen, and doesn't provide enough energy for a morning filled with effort. Costumes are made to measurements taken once a year, however, and she's ordered not to gain weight. Her toes blister from the pointe shoes. All kinds of pressures are coming into play, and the young lady has to grow up fast.

I was filled with admiration for Marta as I read; her resourcefulness and dedication are rare in any teen and she has to deny herself anything that would be a usual part of a girl's life. Lynne and Bartley, two more beginners, share experiences and decide on a three-way friendship, which makes Marta's life so much easier. There are many good lessons which can apply to any walk of life, including serious body image issues we meet today. Author Paddy Eger really made me feel that I was living the experience. The author was herself a dancer for years, though not professionally, and she understands the pressures that young women encounter in such a demanding art.

84 RIBBONS is bright, lively and sad by turns, and strong young adults of all interests will find this book compulsive reading.