Dance on My Grave

Dance on My Grave
First edition cover
AuthorAidan Chambers
LanguageEnglish
SeriesDance Sequence
GenreYoung adult novel
PublisherBodley Head
Publication date
1982
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages256
ISBN978-0-370-30366-6
Preceded byBreaktime 
Followed byNow I Know 

Dance on My Grave is a 1982 young adult novel by British author Aidan Chambers. Its full title is Dance on My Grave: a life and a death in four parts, one hundred and seventeen bits, six running reports and two press clippings, with a few jokes, a puzzle or three, some footnotes and a fiasco now and then to help the story along. It is the second book in Chambers's six-novel Dance Sequence series.

It tells the story of a British teenager named Hal Robinson, detailing the events that led to his dancing on the grave of his slightly older friend, Barry Gorman, with whom Hal had a love affair.[1]

It was one of the first few young adult books published by a major publisher that depicts homosexuality[2][3] without being judgmental and was included on ALA's[4] and other libraries'[5] list of books for gay teens. It has also been referred to in a number of books on children and young adult literature.[6][7][8]

Because of its gay-positive theme, it was challenged at the Montgomery County Memorial Library System in 2004 by the Library Patrons of Texas.[9]

  1. ^ "Dance on My Grave". Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
  2. ^ Eccleshare, Julia (18 May 2007). "Obituaries: Margaret Clark". The Guardian.
  3. ^ "Contemporary Writers: Aidan Chambers". Archived from the original on 12 October 2009.
  4. ^ "Bibliography for Gay Teens". 29 December 2009.
  5. ^ "LGBT Books for Young Adults".
  6. ^ Trites, Roberta Seelinger (2000). Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature. University of Iowa Press. pp. 104–107. ISBN 978-0-87745-732-9.
  7. ^ Hunt, Peter; Ray, Sheila G. Bannister (1996). International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. Routledge. p. 386. ISBN 978-0-203-16812-7.
  8. ^ Trupe, Alice (2006). Thematic Guide to Young Adult Literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-0-313-33234-0.
  9. ^ "Banned Book List". Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2010.