Books About Ballet

Emmy began taking ballet and tap lessons almost two years ago. She enjoys going to her weekly dance class and showing off her moves! Since Emmy rolled over, she has been a very physical child liking movement over being still. It is amazing to watch her balance, twirl and leap. Recently, she has begun to choreograph her own dances and put on shows for her Daddy and me. These moments are precious and are the memories that I will recall as she grows as a dancer.



Emmy and I are always on the lookout for books about dance and wanted to share a few of our favorites with you.

*Our very first book about ballet, Ballerina by Peter Sis, was posted here in April of 2009. I knew then that Emmy would want to take ballet especially since she wanted to wear a tutu every single day!



*Brontorina written by James Howe with illustrations by Randy Cecil is a book that we check out of the library quite often. Brontorina Apatosaurus is determined to become a ballerina. Despite being quite agile, her size gets in the way as she leaps along with the other dancers and often crashes into things. Madame Lucille decides that it is not Brontorina's size that is the problem, but that the studio is too small for Brontorina. The children and Madame Lucille search together for the perfect space which is found in the great outdoors. Emmy's favorite page is the very last one where Brontorina is being lifted so gracefully by her dance partner, a triceratops. "Brontorina's dream came true!" says Emmy as she cheers for Brontorina.


*Another favorite book about ballet is Miss Lina's Ballerinas by Grace Maccarone with pictures by Christine Davenier

"In a cozy white house, in the town of Messina, eight little girls
studied dance with Miss Lina. Christina, Edwina, Sabrina, Justina,
Katrina, Bettina, Marina, and Nina."

And then came Regina!

Check out the trailer for this, as Emmy says, "adorable book":

We are looking forward to reading the follow up to this book...Miss Lina's Ballerinas and the Prince.

"Then one sunny day, as class came to close, Miss Lina, while taking a classical pose, announced to the girls, in her elegant way, a dance would join them the following day 'He's a boy,' says Miss Lina. I want you to know. He will join us for class and our end-of-year show."

Both books end with a page of ballet terms which is helpful to this non-dancing mom!

*Josephine Wants to Dance, by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley, has two wonderful messages...to never give up and always dance to your own music. Even though Josephine is reminded quite often that kangaroos don't dance - they hop, she dreams of wearing a tutu and silk ballet shoes and dancing on a stage. She sneaks off to the city to watch the ballerinas practice and when the prima ballerina twists her ankle, and the understudy also suffers an injury, Josephine leaps to the rescue.



You may recognize a familiar character in this story...it's Mothball the wombat from the book Diary of a Wombat which is the first book from the team of French and Whatley.




*Time for Ballet, by Adele Geras and Shelaugh McNicholas, is the story of Tilly and her weekly ballet class. It is told by Tilly and most closely resembles Emmy's dance class experience.






The sequel, Little Ballet Star, shows Tilly's birthday surprise when she goes to see her Aunt Gina star in the ballet Sleeping Beauty.





*Next up for Emmy and me will be the Belinda the Ballerina series by Amy Young. Belinda loves to dance, but her problem is her long feet. We'll check out the first one on our next trip to the library!

This photo is of Emmy at her dance recital last year where she danced to the song Baby Face. This year we are looking forward to watching her dance to Music, Music, Music!

Happy dancing everyone!