SOLVED. young girl dancing ballet during the war simple chapter novel, genre: novel, fictional. I read the book maybe 5 years ago but it was a very old book [s]

[Rahael]

Im trying to find a small fictional chapter book that followed the story of a young girl about 6-12 who was practicing ballet, set somewhere in Europe. She lived only with her mother and once the war broke out she secretly went to her ballet classes but was forced by her mother, she hated going. Both her and the mother had to secretly travel to the location of the ballet class without being caught and the teacher of the class was quite angry and harsh on the girl. Im pretty sure due to the war the location of these classes were quite damaged and unsafe, yet they continued to practice. I remember her home setting to be quite dull and poor and they always had to ration food, im pretty sure she frequently tried to find food at a local bakery/shop. I remember one scene of her desperately wishing she was taller so once her mum was asleep she would attempt to do strange exercises wishing to gain height. The book is not A Dancer in the Wartime or Taking Flight. This book was a very easy read with a quite simple vocabulary as I read it around 13 years of age.

[Becca]

Dancing Through Fire by Kathryn Lasky? From what I can see from a Google Books preview, she does do stretching excercises to try to make herself taller while her mum is asleep, like you describe.

[Rahael]

Becca wrote: "Dancing Through Fire by Kathryn Lasky? From what I can see from a Google Books preview, she does do stretching excercises to try to make herself taller while her mum is asleep, like y..."

Yes !! Thank you so much !