A creative take on bullying; appropriate for late elementary and middle school students. Interesting mix of reality with nature to make points. I hope this book gets a fair shake with all of the bully books out there right now! ( )

This is an interesting coming of age story about a young man who loses his father and then has to adjust to his life afterwards. This involves moving to a new school, becoming a care giver for his younger brother and learning to love himself. The story is well written and draws together elements of "Billy Elliot" and "Swan Lake". Even when you and everyone around you is broken, there is a beautiful swan underneath the surface. ( )

Johnny and his family (mother and younger brother) have moved after the loss of Johnny's father. Johnny is the target of quite a bit of bullying, and has been choosing to perform in a ballet at his school, which doesn't help with social acceptance. On top of that, there is a fantasy/metaphor element to this story-line where he starts to grow swan feathers on his chest. In the end the story does a nice job of showing a young man learning to find his voice and his self-confidence. ( )

I received a free advanced copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers giveaway in exchange for an honest review.

**Spoiler Alert**

After looking at some of the other early reviews for this book, I guess I’m in the minority with my opinion. I’ll start by saying that this is just that, my opinion, and this story might really be enjoyed by some young readers, but it was a little too disjointed for me. There were several great story lines, but their resolutions seemed rushed or out of place in a way. I thought the author did a great job of making Johnny’s “bullying” story line seem very realistic and his feelings relatable to kids. It was a great idea to have the students punishment for getting caught fighting in the library be a choice of having to pick up trash or dance in a production of Swan Lake. It was also very realistic how the main character Johnny and his younger brother Mojo (who was my favorite character) dealt with their father’s death, especially how Mojo thinks in his 5-year-old mind that he’s responsible for his father’s death because he told him he “wished he would die” in that way some kids do when they are angry at their parents. Where things got a little confusing to me was when Johnny apparently started turning into a swan. At first I thought it was the metaphorical “turning into a swan,” because he was gaining confidence dancing in Swan Lake and seeing at the park how powerful real swans are. Then he really started turning into a swan...he grows a white streak of hair...finds feathers growing on his chest...and then starts talking in a gravelly “swan-like” voice. What I found odd was that people in his real life saw these things happening and really weren’t concerned by it. Then he wasn’t concerned that he was growing actual feathers. Again, I’m still not sure if this was metaphorical and he was imagining it or supposed to be realistic and it left me wondering what this story was trying to be...is it realistic...is it fantasy? I don’t like to box books into being one genre or another, but we genre in our library and I would have a hard time figuring out where to put this story. So very realistic bullying story, but a hard sell to students I think. ( )

I received this book as an early review copy.

This is a fun coming of age story with some overtones of magical realism. Moving to a new school, Johnny has to deal with bullies, making new friends, and choosing between picking up garbage and starring in a dance-play of Swan Lake. And his 5 year old brother, Mojo, is Up To Something.

The dialogue and descriptions are good, and the author did a nice job bringing up important issues without hammering on them in a way that would turn off readers. ( )