Hope in a Ballet Shoe ★★★★ ★

Michaela DePrince and Elaine DePrince (Faber & Faber, R210)

An inspirational story of a young girl who triumphs over the bad hand dealt to her at birth. Surviving the politics of civil war in Sierra Leone in the early ’90s, she finds solace in an orphan friend and a photo of a ballerina from an old magazine cover. Her hopes of being that ballerina are fulfilled when she is adopted by an American family. Michaela’s story shows that hope doesn’t only spring eternal, it grand jetes in the human breast. — Vuyo Mzini @vuyomzini