A Very Young Skater

I read this book back in 1980 when I was in junior high. I remember being very impressed with young Katherine Healy reaching the junior skating level at the tender age of ten, and mastering those awful school figures -- something I could relate to as I took skating myself and struggled on chilly Saturday mornings to perfect my figures! It clearly showed her dedication to both her skating and ballet, and the love and support of her parents. Katherine also starred in the movie "Six Weeks". She played the bright and talented 12-year-old leukemia stricken daughter of a wealthy cosmetic magnate (Mary Tyler Moore). She and her mother strike up a sentimental friendship with a California politician (Dudley Moore), and as one of Nikki's last wishes, the trio fly to New York City to see the sights. By chance Nicole assumes the lead of Clara in a few scenes of The Nutcracker ballet, after the head of the company sees her dance, but unfortunately dies shortly thereafter. It is the Nutcracker scenes that reveal Katherine's brilliant ballet talent. She went on to become a stunning principal ballerina with the English National Ballet, the Vienna State Opera Ballet Company, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and the London Festival Ballet, as well as skating competitively and professionally. Currently, she is married to Peter Burrows and is a choreographer as well as appearing with the Ice Theater of New York and in numerous guest skating events. An outstanding book of the early years of this talented artist! Highly recommended!

I read most of the "A Very Young_____" books over and over as a little girl and they all come back to me. In taking ice-skating classes now, I remember a lot of Katherine's story, especially when she talked about how light her "tracings" were on the ice. Anyone who doesn't know skating, will enjoy the introduction, and it will be a great nostlagia venture for older adults.

My late grandparents gave me this book, brand new, in 1979. I was 8 years old and was involved in skating, too! I read it constantly back then. I came across it again two days ago, 23 years later. The book is about a 10 year old skater named Katherine Healy from Brooklyn Heights. At 10, she has already been very successful as a figure and free skater. She talks about her day-to-day experiences, from how her school schedule is rearranged to accomodate her skating schedule and how skating takes up a significant amount of time in her life. She talks about ice shows, exhibitions, ballet classes to help skating, costuming, testing, and especially, skating for fun! She is very ambitious but clearly loves skating and she has a wonderful and loving family who supports her. Her father is a lawyer and she is an only child - her mother devotes a lot of time to Katherine's skating career as well, which is important to note! :) The pictures are beautiful and the story is told to a child from a child which is great. I'm 32 and I liked reading it again. If there were any drawbacks, it would be that Katherine talks about practicing 'school figures' and the difficulty that she sometimes has with them. The reader gets the impression that this is the only part of skating that Katherine doesn't love - practicing school figures. The best part is that figure skating has been revised so that these school figures are no longer a necessary part of advancing through the skating ranks. So many skaters had a negative response to them that they have been eliminated from requirements of testing (I am almost positive about this). Now that I have my own daughter, who is a gymnast, I want to get her the 'Very Young Gymnast' book, which is how I came across this site. I hope she'll treasure it as much as I loved this book 'A very young skater'. It really is a collectible.

Katherine Healy is the young skater in this book written by Jill Krementz. Katherine is ten and already a successful skater. She talks about her skating lessons, her school figure lessons, and her idol, John Curry. The privileged Katherine attends a summer class taught by the wonderful Curry, and is invited by this important personage to be in Superskates, a big skating show held once a year in Madison Square Garden. Follow Katherine as she leads you through her exciting life filled with new skates, pretty dresses, ballet lessons, skating competitions, skating shows, wonderful coaches, and best of all, a loving and supportive family. This book is priceless.