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!

Ballerina

This past Christmas, Emmy asked Santa Claus for a tutu. As she really wasn't one to perform, her Daddy and I wondered where this idea came from. Silly grown ups! Of course the idea came from a book. Ballerina by Peter Sis had been in our collection for quite awhile before Emmy became attached to it, but once she did, her ballet aspirations took off at lightening speed! As a grown up who never experienced formal dance as a child, I was just as entranced as Emmy in this adorable book. It begins with a little girl coming home from school and immediately undressing and putting on her tights and leotard. From there her imagination soars as she digs through her dress up box and adds a few accessories such as a tutu, a turban and Emmy's favorite colorful
scarves. The most fun is to see the little girl look into her full length mirror and see herself as a mature ballerina dancing in a number of ballets such as The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Emmy and I both love the way Peter Sis patterned the story beginning with a simple line-art illustration of the little girl in her colorless bedroom and continuing on with a two-page spread, the left-hand page giving a short descriptive sentence about the girl trying one colored item of a dance costume on and the right-hand page showing a corresponding imaginary view of the girl as an adult ballerina dancing in the complete costume along with a descriptive action word (stretch, reach, leap...). Ending with, as Emmy would say, "the best page ever" a fold out showing all seven of the previous ballerinas curtseying. As there aren't many books about ballerinas for young children, Ballerina is high on our recommendation list.

For our followers with a young boy, we haven't left you out. Check out Peter Sis' book Fire Truck for some fiery fun! In this book Sis celebrates a universally cherished childhood favorite—the fire truck—in simple, clean lines and smooth planes of color. And "the best page ever" for Emmy is a fold-out of the fire truck accompanied by a numbered list of items to look for that can be read as part of the narrative or returned to later as a find-and-count game.

In an interview with Barnes and Noble, Peter Sis shared a few anecdotes that I thought were fascinating and worth noting here:

"My first job in Prague was as a D.J. while still in art school. I did not take it seriously and perhaps, because of that, I ended up with a radio show, taping interviews in London with the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and many others. I also flew around Europe as an emcee of the Beach Boys."

"I painted a real egg (decorated with a map) for the cover of Print magazine that caught the eye of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was then an editor at Doubleday. This led to the book The Three Golden Keys. Then I received a phone call from the American Egg Board. They asked me to paint an egg for the White House. So, there I was, on Easter Monday, with my family, presenting a painted goose egg -- or was it a duck's? -- to President and Mrs. Clinton. One never knows!"

I think this is my new mantra, "One never knows!" Just put yourself out there and see what happens.