With honesty, charm and humour, Maddie offers her unique perspective on making her way in the world as a young teenager, reflecting on the lessons she's learned - and preparing for the exciting road ahead.

A tale that that will appeal to young kids particularly if they’ve been through a move themselves where they find their entire life uprooted. From Dance Moms star and So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation judge Maddie Ziegler comes the first novel in a brand-new middle grade trilogy about friendship, dance, and going after your dreams. I just finished The Audition, by Julia Rozines DeVillers and Maddie Ziegler, and it was such a good book. The Audition is about a girl named Harper who has been dancing her whole life, but suddenly moves from Connecticut to Florida. There she joins a new dance studio and gets on the advanced competition team with only four other girls. There she meets three girls who have been dancing together their whole life, but one other new girl. Although at first the other girls aren’t very accepting of her, they soon become friends.What if you lived a happy life in Connecticut with your family and you were the top of your class at your dance studio, winning all kinds of awards? What if you found out that your dad got transferred to Florida and the closest dance studio was DanceStarz, a highly competitive dance studio? Will you fit in and be accepted by your new teammates? Well, this is exactly what happens to Harper McCoy. She is used to being the "top dog" at her dance studio in Connecticut, but when she makes the competitive dance team at DanceStarz her new teammates are not so willing to take her in. Harper learns to rely on her family and her new friend, Lily, who is also new to the team. It takes a while for this group of three girls, the Bunheads, to accept their new teammates, but they learn that they have to work together if they want to beat their rivals and former friends, Energii. All of the girls learn about friendship, deception, trust, and teamwork. I knew my mom got nervous for me too. I did appreciate my mom. Not only did she drive me to the studio practically every day, she had to do things like hot-glue thousands of rhinestones on competition costumes at the last minute and sew my hair into bizarre headpieces with feathers or things while I yelped in pain. Something that was different in this book, and that enjoyed, was that Maddie Ziegler and Julia Rozines DeVillers used real dance terminology. They didn’t just say “she turned” or “she jumped.” They used “pirouettes” or “jetés.” Usually in dance books they don’t use terminology, so they don’t confuse the reader if the reader isn’t a dancer.

It turns out that the closest dance studio to her new home, was DanceStarz. A very competitive dance studio that accepted her as a dancer, but not so much as a friend. It was difficult for Harper to make friends at DanceStarz because everyone was so competitive. But she did make a new friend who also on her dance team...Lily. And it is Lilly she who supports Harper the most, throughout this difficult time, along with her parents.

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I am not a huge fan of non-fiction, but I flew through this and finished it in only a few hours. It was a very easy and fast paced read. It did seem to jump around a little bit and had random things thrown in, but it still was pretty good. I definitively think fans of the show or Maddie will still enjoy it. I also think this is perfect for younger teens. What a cute start to a new trilogy. Harper is new to town and looking to not only join a dance studio, but land a spot on their competition team. Change is hard, especially when you don’t know anyone and you are dancing with a group who has been together for years. I was surprised to see that Maddie wrote a book. I hate to judge but I didn’t think it would be that great. She is young like me. I don’t know that I would be able to write but her talent for writing blew me out of the water! Thankfully, something that doesn’t happen often, Hailey who is Harper’s little sister was actually not too annoying! Just sometimes. 😛 Ultimately, this was a nice read. I wanted something easy and chill for the weekend and this was it. I think deep down I had hoped for something juicier and more personal but yeah, I realize that's not what this book had intended to be.