Highland Fling

by Kathleen Ernst

A year ago, Tanya Zeshonski was living in Wisconsin, interning at the public television station, and eating Polish food on the holidays. Then her mother divorced her father, reclaimed her maiden name of MacDonald, and moved to North Carolina to submerge them all in their Scottish heritage. So now, at 15, Tanya is the oldest beginning student at the Flora MacDonald School of Highland Dance. Instead of pursuing her dream of being a filmmaker, she's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812627423
• ISBN13: 9780812627428
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Cricket Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Scots wha hae

They say not to judge a book by a cover, and maybe in a perfect world such a thing could occur. Yet nine times out of ten a book cover is a dead giveaway of the material hidden inside. And librarians, booksellers, and readers all know this. Pity then the smartly written book nestled within garish packaging. Or, in the case of Kathleen Ernst's overlooked, "Highland Fling", maybe the word "dowdy" would be more apropos. Now I've been reading many many children's books this year. I don't have time to read all of them, though, and usually if a book doesn't look too enticing I'll settle for a chapter or two and leave it at that. So the only reason I was even able to read "Highland Fling" was a) I used to dance the highland fling myself as a child and b) I removed the cover. Once I got into it I found, to my very great delight, a book worthy of not just interest but downright applause! This is a truly interesting title. Now maybe I'm just saying that since I'm of Scottish descent and because I can still deliver a mean sword dance if called upon to do so, but I doubt it. Though the book will not grab the casual shopper, those brave enough to give it a go by looking beyond the packaging will be rewarded with a truly enjoyable story of a girl, her family, and a campground full of kilt-crazy Scots. Have your parents ever dragged you to something you didn't want to go to? Well, for fifteen-year-old Tanya, that kind of thing has happened more than once. First her mom drags both of her daughters, including Tanya's sister Nan, from the Midwest to North Carolina. Now she's being dragged to yet another Highland Festival celebrating the family's Scottish heritage. Ever since her parents divorced, Tanya's mom has plunged wholeheartedly into this new obsession and this is one teenager who's anything but willing. Sure, she takes Highland dancing lessons, but she screws up in her first performance while competing in a sword dance event. The only thing Tanya really loves to do is create documentary films, and now she's decided to use this inescapable Festival week-end to do a tell-all on the dishonesty behind these so-called "Scottish" traditions. What Tanya doesn't count on is the friendship of a Puerto Rican bagpiper, a connection to her own genetic history (which reveals itself in unpleasant ways), and a surprise visit from her father. The week-end may not be very long, but it's certainly going to be eventful. I'm sure lots of books written like "Highland Fling" could have ended with the heroine falling in love with her heritage by the story's end and begging to be included in future Highland Games. Ernst is smart enough to instead inject her story with a little reality, and that's awfully refreshing. Maybe Tanya hasn't reached a perfect understanding with her father and her mother's new obsession, but at least she isn't overflowing with spite anymore. It's a start. I also liked that this wasn't one of those stories where a kid just isn't