In Reaching for a New Leaf: Stories of Teachers Dancing With Fate, Karen Ferguson Tauber's second short story collection, the teacher-protagonists seize upon various opportunities in hopes of creating new beginnings. In some instances, their risk-taking behaviors lead the characters to dance wonderfully new life tunes. Other times, the characters must step back, reflect, and reframe, because they experience the harsh collision between their previously held expectations and the ensuing realities. When characters hit the wall, they are compelled to retrace their steps and learn to dance to old tunes in new ways. Throughout these eleven stories, readers gain an awareness of how new life experiences help us to grow whether the chances we take yield the results we long for or, instead, lead us back to the familiarity of tried and true dances.