Bunheads: Sophia Flack

                          I have just finished this really good book called Bunheads, by Sophie Flack. It is about ballerinas, or ballet dancers in the corps de ballet. These girls are striving to become successful ballerinas and as of now, they are placed in group dances, and don't have their name in the playbill or anything. All of the dancers feel as though they are not pretty enough, skilled enough, precise enough, or skinny enough to be on top. Although they are all very close friends, they will all forget about friendship as soon as their choreographers announce that they will be picking a new dancer for a performance.
                          This book is told from the point of view of Hannah Ward. A hard working dancer who moved to New York City all alone when she was just fourteen years old. Hannah is working very hard to have a real spot in the play. However, several distractions come up. She meets Jacob, a laid-back and very caring and loving boy. She also starts considering college. Both of these "distractions"are considered very "wild" of a ballerina to focus on. Hannah starts thinking about how she does not want her life to only be about work, and dancing and dieting. With this book, I can make several text-to-text connections.
                        
                         The first book I can make a text-to-text connection with is the "Secrets of my Hollywood life" series, by Jen Calonita. This series is about a sixteen year old hollywood a-lister whose life is only about work. "Bunheads" and "Secrets of my Hollywood life" are very similar. For example, in both books, both main characters meet boys who are not as busy as they are and do not understand the pressure's of their girlfriends careers. In both of these main character's lives, having a boyfriend is considered a huge distraction and is not approved of by their families. Another way these books are similar is because both characters are faced with the challenge of thinking about college. Both girls want to get a full education and take time of work! Like Hannah, Kaitlin Burke doesn't want her whole life to be only about her career. They both want to take time off and live like the average college student!

                      The second book I can make a text-to-text connection with is "The Daughters" series. Hudson, one of the main characters of the series, is incredibly focused on her singing career. For example, like Hannah, both girls have problems with making plans with friends. Both Hannah's and Hudson's "out of work friends" are starting to turn on them because they are always to busy and are constantly bailing on their friends' plan. This is definitely a very tough thing for the characters to deal with. Do they want to be with their friends and enjoy their weekends? Or work on their careers?

                     The third book I can make a text-to-text connection with is the book "Coco Chanel: The Legend and Life". This book is about Coco Chanel's life. In a chapter which talks about Chanel's free time, the book mentions how Coco Chanel would deny that she needed friends and close relationships with other people. This is also something Hannah Ward faces. She tries to make herself and others around her believe that she doesn't want friends or boyfriends and only wants to dance and work on her career. Both people in these books try to push away the fact that they need friends and relationships because they only want to work.

                    In conclusion, I can make several text-to-text connections with this book. Like, Hannah Ward, characters in other books get distracted from their work, consider college, choose work over fun, and try to deny the fact that they need other people to make their life happy. Hannah Ward's career is a very stressful one, and she needs to make very difficult decisions.