Life in Motion
By: Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland has lived her childhood going from boyfriend to boyfriend with her mom and family. She has never lived in one house her whole life. Just as she begins to make friends or start to feel comfortable, her mom would pack them up and move again. Misty is a persistent girl who is a perfectionist and wants to be the best she can be at everything. Also, she is the middle child who doesn’t get a lot of attention. She has to achieve something or have a huge accomplishment to be noticed by her mom. She expresses herself through dance. When she is mad or happy, she dances.

When Misty starts dancing at the Boys and Girl Club she accomplished skills in months which take most dancers years to learn. As she starts to climb to the top, she has to choose between comfort and uniqueness. Will Misty chose to follow her dreams or stay in the shadows?

There is a recurring theme in this book and that is to have determination and never give up. Misty has so much determination through the entire book. She gets knocked down countless numbers of times, but she always gets back up. She never gives up. I think Misty wrote this book for all the little African-American girls that want to become something that is considered for “whites only.” This is a great multicultural book that opens your eyes to other cultures and how they feel and are treated. 

I liked the book. It is an incredible story of persistence and determination. She is an amazing person that overcame all the bad in her life for something good. This book kept me interested and always wanting to read more. I love to dance, so this book was great for me. I could relate to most of the topics she would talk about. On the other hand, there was a huge aspect of the book that I could never relate to and that was something I really liked about it. I was interested to see how her life carried on and who she would turn out to be. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves dance. This book will teach you how to be persistent and it talks about the same problems us dancers have. She reels you in with all the problems she has had and all the struggles she overcomes. You start to ask yourself what you would do in this situation. Would you have the same determination and courage?