Giveaway/ CLOSED/ Book Review: The Sugarless Plum by Zippora Karz

I love FSB Associates Publishing ! They send me the MOST interesting offers for books to review!

I couldn’t pass up this book, as I knew it would make some reader a very happy person, when they won it for themselves or someone they love!

The book is the biographical story of Zippora (Little Bird in Hebrew, she was named after her grandmother) Karz, who left home at the age of 15 to pursue her dream of becoming a prima ballerina in NYC. By age 20 she was a rising star with the NYC ballet, winning accolades as the iconic Sugar Plum fairy in Tchaikovsky's much loved classic, the Nutcracker.

The book actually begins when Zippora is 21 and about to perform in a new ballet at NYC Ballet, and is struggling with exhaustion and putting off calling her doctor back. She discovers she has Type 1 diabetes and realizes she can no longer dance through the exhaustion and dizziness and needs help to learn how to deal with her disease.

It then segues back to her introduction to ballet and her growing up with her family until she is sent to NYC and her sisters to SAB in San Francisco, all to further their study of ballet, over the summer. At age 15 she is offered the chance to continue as a SAB student and to become one of Balanchine’s school students. After his death she continues as an apprentice, and worked her way up to being a member of the corps de ballet by age 18.

After her first foot injury she is told she has diabetes, but is mis-diagnosed by multiple doctors, saying she had Type-2. She goes through different treatments and plans, with short lived success while still keeping with her vigorous training and performing schedule.

She stays with NYC Ballet for SIXTEEN years, fighting and accepting her diagnosis and coming to terms with it. After deciding to quit as a dancer, she became one of the teachers for the Balanchine School Trust, traveling around the country, and the world, helping to teach/assist with putting on ballet productions based on Balanchine's programs.She is an outspoken advocate for diabetes awareness, and provides great ending chapters with information and resources.

The book is very readable and is a good introduction to the world of the NYC Ballet and the dilemmas facing dancers. I would highly recommend it to anyone you know who loves ballet or who has diabetes, as it is a very can-do book on living with the diagnosis!

Giveaway:

1 copy of Zippora's The Sugarless Plum book

Entries:

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Contest will end on November 2nd, at midnight. Winner will be picked by Random Number (random.org) on November 3rd, and emailed. As soon as winner's info is received from winner, the books will be mailed to them!

Disclosure: FSB Associates Publishing sent me this book, at no cost to me, for review purposes.I was NOT compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product!