Angelina at the Palace

Text: Katherine Holabird

Illustrations: Helen Craig

Year: 2005

Publisher: Puffin Books, London

Age: 6 – 10 years

No. of Pages: 28

Book Type: Picture Book

ISBN:  978 0 14138 126 4

Website: Angelina Ballerina

Miss Lilly has been assigned to teach a special dance for the three princesses of Mouseland. Angelina is thrilled when Miss Lilly asks for her help.

Things, however, don’t go as planned when a flu knocks out the tutor and Angelina has to step up to teach instead. And she does.

The princesses dance elegantly and put on a beautiful show.

The Angelina Ballerina series are a wonderful means to teach children significant life values like self-confidence, self-esteem, empathy, creative expression. Our girls love Angelina. :-)

Excerpt

Angelina could hardly believe her furry ears when Miss Lilly invited her on a special visit to the Royal Palace of Mouseland.

Beautiful Ballerinas

Text: Elizabeth Dombey

Illustration: Shelagh McNicholas

Year: 2014

Publisher: Grosset and Dunlap, New York

Age: 3 and above

No. of Pages: 32

ISBN: 978 0 44846 714 6

My 4-year-old zoomed into this book at the library like a bee to a flower. She’s passionate about ballet, rather, her idea of ballet and ballerinas.

This book is a soft introduction to ballet for little girls, and combines cute illustrations with photographs. The book touches on basic positions; common terms and also devotes eight pages to the history and evolution of the art. 

It should keep your budding artist engaged for quite some time! :-)

Excerpt

Now on to the allegro (say: ah-LEG-roh) portion of class!

The music picks up and the dancers perform faster, livelier steps, such as turns and small jumps.

Then it’s time for grand allegro, which is a series of large jumps. 

Angelina Ice Skates

Author: Katherine Holabird

Illustrator: Helen Craig

Year: 1993

Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications, USA

Age: 6 and above

No. of Pages: 26

Website: Angelina Ballerina

ISBN: 978 1 58485 660 2

New Year’s Eve is just around the corner and little Angelina and her friends are busy with preparations for a special ice skating show. As the rehearsals get underway, they find that they have a problem. The hockey players want to use the frozen Miller’s Pond at the same time too!

After a series of interruptions and an all-out snowball fight, Angelina decides to invite the errant players to join the show. And voila! They have a great show to usher in the New Year.

This book reminded me of the story in the Playground Problem. :-) There is wisdom in these books.

By the way, did I mention that Angelina and her friends are, ummm… mice?

Excerpt

When Angelina danced into the spotlight that night, she felt like a real snow queen. Spike and Sammy did exciting leaps and jumps together, and Henry was thrilled to be the King’s attendant, while Felicity, Flora, and Alice seemed to fly across the ice like delicate snowflakes. 

Darkness Slipped In

By Ella Burfoot 

Year: 2008

Publisher: Kingfisher Books, London

Age: 4 and above

No. of Pages: 30

ISBN: 978 0 75341 845 1

This book ought to cure most kids of their fear of darkness. :-)

Meet Daisy, a brave little girl who sees Darkness slip in through her bedroom window at the end of the day. She is not scared and grabs him by the arm to dance the funky twist.  Soon, they’re good friends and they ‘dance and laugh and play’ every night.

Besides, the creative representation of darkness, the book depicts darkness quite creatively too. He comes with a glossy touch! :-)

Excerpt

And pretty soon, around the room, they danced the FUNKY TWIST!

And after all that dancing round they had a little break.

They sipped a cup of lemonade and nibbled on some cake. 

Ballet Kitty

Text: Bernette Ford

Illustrator: Sam Williams

Year: 2007

Publisher: Boxer Books, Great Britain 

Age: 4 and above

No. of Pages:  32

ISBN: 978 1 90541 771 1

This book ought to satisfy any little girl with its ballet and ballerina themed tale. :-)

Meet Kitty, a happy little, well, kitten, whose best friend Pussycat is coming to play. She puts on her ballet outfit except for her ballet slippers. They’re nowhere to be found! Kitty begins to feel a little grumpy. A tear drop rolls down her face too. She does pull on her trainers, though and has a fantastic day with her friend.

At the end of the day, when she’s beaming with happiness, she finds her ballet slippers, just where she’d put them away, the night before. Ooops!

I read this book more than a couple of times for my kids so they’d get the message. Hint! Hint! :-)

Excerpt

Then Ballet Kitty kicked off her trainers. She showed Princess Pussycat her best pirouettes, her perfect plies and her cutest curtsies.

Princess Pussycat tried a pirouette too. It wasn’t as pretty as Ballet Kitty’s. But that didn’t matter.