Highland Fling

Kathleen Ernst

     Fifteen year old Tanya, reeling from her parents' divorce, is far from ready to embrace her Scottish heritage at North Carolina's Cross Creek Highland Games. She should be back in Green Bay, Wisconsin, doing what she was born to do: make documentaries. But she can't let down her mom or her younger sister, Nan.
     Still, it rankles. And so Tanya decides to film a documentary that will expose the Highland Games as a myth, a nostalgic fabrication of what people want Highland heritage to be. Only she doesn't count on running into Christina Campbell, an accomplished dancer who takes Nan under her wing--and who for some reason makes Tanya's blood run cold. Nor does she count on a friendship with Miguel Moreno, a teenaged Puerto Rican bagpiper, who listens as she opens up about her parents' divorce.
     During the course of an eventful weekend, Tanya learns that to go forward means turning to confront the past--her own past and that of her Scots forebears.

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"This YA is about coping, adapting, and coming out from one’s shell.... We rated this book five hearts."

--Bob Spear, Heartland Reviews

"Readers will sympathize with Tanya.... What's more, even readers without Scottish ancestors will be fascinated by the history and lore Ernst deftly inserts into the story."

--Booklist

"Perceptive and witty. You don't have to be Scottish to understand and enjoy this book."

--Mary Harris Russell, the Chicago Tribune