Ainsley Mckinnon may have been born in Canada, but her ancestry was Scottish. Of all the heritage she adored, she loved to dance and from a young age it was her life. From the age of four onwards, she started to learn how to perform the various Scottish dances. Spending all her time practicing, she then starts to compete in various shows even at that young age. While she may not have won anything in her first few attempts, by dint of practice and willpower she begins to achieve her goals and soon she is coming first in her grade. Through the next few years, she progresses steadily through the grades while still keeping her schoolwork up to date, a restriction placed on her by her parents to ensue she does not fall behind. In time, from all the hard work, she has the opportunity to perform at the Highland Games taking place in Scotland and compete with three thousand of the best dancers.

This is a straightforward story of a young girl’s desire and drive to be the best dancer she can and her lifelong passion for the subject. Aimed at young teens, it keeps the story simple concentrating on her hard work and dedication and what can be achieved, instead of drama or crisis that might dissuade some or add spice to the telling. As a result, the book can be a little dry to read, and the language and structure is certainly aimed at a younger audience, but it is an easy tale to follow. In some ways it is more a recanting of events that occur, albeit with some amusing anecdotes thrown in for good measure. You will still find the difficulty and hardship that it takes to be the best and the toll it takes, but it is far more interspersed with family life than any detail of any suffering or pain that can occur when training this hard. With the choice of the author’s style of writing, it does mean the characters are a little flat and not quite so easy to relate to, aside from those brief moments where it is less about the dancing and more about the family, even then you don’t truly get an idea of what it means for Ainsley apart from a superficial idea of how wonderful it is for her.

As for the content of the book, there is plenty of detail on Scotland and it’s culture, the dances, the food, the different tartan colours and so on. The editing and spelling were fine, although there were no chapter breaks in the story when perhaps it may be appropriate, but otherwise it was easy enough to read from end to end without any hesitation.

Overall, it is a simple story and easy to read and shows the virtue of hard work and dedication paying off. It may not be to everyone’s taste but I certainly enjoyed my brief time following Ainsley’s life.