I love to dance into a new month, don’t you? Here’s two picture books to help!
Lena’s Slippers
Author & Illustrator: Ioana Hobai
Publisher/Date: Page Street Kids/2019
Ages: 4-8
Themes: ballet, dancing shoes, perseverance, economic hardship, determination
Short Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Lena can’t wait to twirl and swirl on stage for her school dance recital, but her family does not have the money to pay for new dance slippers. Despite this, nothing is going to stop Lena from dancing. As the day of the recital draws closer, Lena works hard come up with a creative solution and enjoys her shining moment on stage, learning along the way that what you do is more important than what you wear.
Lena’s passion for performing will inspire readers, especially aspiring dancers. Parents will love that it teaches kids not to get caught up in artificial, materialistic ideals. With lovely illustrations, this heartwarming story highlights the power of perseverance and the joy of creativity.
Read a review at The Picture Book Buzz.
The Wonder Shoes
Author: Eva Bernatová
Illustrator: Fiona Moodie
Publisher/Date: Farrar Straus Giroux/1990
Ages: 4-8
Themes: ballet, dancing shoes, loneliness, persistence
Short Synopsis (from Goodreads):
A story of a young girl named Emma who is enraptured by the Circus Umberto, which has come to her village featuring a beautiful young dancer wearing bright red dancing shoes. Emma dreams of becoming a dancer herself, and wonderful things happen when she receives her own pair of dancing shoes.
Because of the date of publication, I didn’t find a review of The Wonder Shoes, but my kids loved it when they were young.
I paired these books because both feature dancers and the desire to obtain dance shoes. In Lena’s Slippers, economic hardship and the realities of life in a country with bare-shelved stores leaves Lena scrambling to find the right white dance slippers to join with her ballet classmates. In The Wonder Shoes, lonely newcomer Emma dreams of life as a dancer, and finds friends, and an opportunity to dance, through perseverance and creativity. Both books highlight the joys of dancing and the desire to be part of a group.
Looking for similar reads?
See Brave Ballerina: The Story of Janet Collins (Michelle Meadows/Ebony Glenn, 2019) and Firebird: Ballerina Misty Copeland Shows a Young Girl How to Dance Like the Firebird (Misty Copeland/Christopher Myers, 2014), featured here last spring, and Danza! Amalia Hernández and El Ballet Folklórico de México (Duncan Tonatiuh, 2017).
Wander, Ponder, Write 