Children's Books discussion

In February 2015, the Picture Book Club will explore books about dance.

This list is our Master List and General Discussion for picture books about dance (those books not featured in our February discussion). Please feel welcome to add to our list and share your thoughts on dance books you've enjoyed.

I've danced for many years and love books about dance, so this theme is just my cup of tea! ;-)

Some of my favorite dance-themed books so far include:

Brontorina (great fun, a huge hit with my little ballerinas)

Tallulah's Tutu (love this one! haven't read the sequels yet)

Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet

Miss Lina's Ballerinas

Tanya and Emily in a Dance for Two

Max (Rachel Isadora does beautiful dance books and this one is so important, especially for those who think ballet is "just for girls")

Tallchief: America's Prima Ballerina (a wonderful biography of one of America's great ballerinas)

I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina (lovely Degas artwork paired with excerpts from Anna Pavlova's autobiography)

Footwork: The Story of Fred and Adele Astaire

Deer Dancer (lovely book that shows the more natural spirit of dance)

Little Ballet Star (another big success with my 5-year-old ballerinas)

Others that I enjoyed:
Ballerina Swan
Ella, Of Course!
José! Born to Dance: The Story of José Limon
Flora and the Flamingo

These were just three-stars for me, but worthy of the list and others might enjoy them even more than I did:
Noel the First
Tanya and the Red Shoes
Dancing in the Wings


I haven't read these yet, but they look good:
Dance!
Alvin Ailey
Time for Ballet
Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring

I like Fancy Nancy Budding Ballerina better than the other one. I also loved Flora and the Flamingo - so funny! I'll check our others when I get home.

I haven't read Fancy Nancy: Budding Ballerina yet; happy to add it to the list!

I have already enjoyed Firebird by Rachel Isadora. I'd prefer to read books new to me, but this def. belongs on the Master List. She has lots of books about dancing, and she's a good artist, so they're likely to be good books.

Turns out I have more books on my shelves that have 'dance' in the title than I expected.

I rated Josephine Wants to Dance by Jackie French five stars. That's worth a reread!

I also enjoyed:

Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance
Barn Dance!
My Mama Had a Dancing Heart

On my to-read lists are:

Isadora Dances (might be hard to find at libraries)
The Scarecrow's Dance (might be good for discussion - see description)
Chicken Dance

Rupert Can Dance

Color Dance is more about colors than dancing...but dancing is used to show how colors combine...beautiful illustrations.

Deer Dancer

Penguin Cha-Cha

Cock-a-Doodle Dance!

Lucy's Dance... This one sounds interesting to me...Lucy helps her town remember the traditional Yupik dances. Haven't read it though.

Naughty Toes

Cha-Cha Chimps. My kids liked this a lot!

Nutcracker Twinkle Toes This is a board book for the youngest readers.

Elephants Cannot Dance!. We love Mo Willems and Elephant and Piggie.

Dance by the Light of the Moon
Drumheller Dinosaur Dance
Ten Go Tango
Doing The Animal Bop

A Bucket of Blessings
The Twelve Dancing Princesses (Mayer's version)
Rabbit's Snow Dance
Secret Of The Dance
Jingle Dancer
Long Powwow Nights
Dragon Dancing
Chin Chiang and the Dragon's Dance
Shannon: An Ojibway Dancer
The Paper Crane

Chasing Degas
Degas and the Little Dancer
When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky: Two Artists, Their Ballet, and One Extraordinary Riot
Becoming a Ballerina: A Nutcracker Story
Jazz Age Josephine
The Girl Who Wanted to Dance
A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina's Dream
Ballerina Swan
Rupert Can Dance
Firebird

Kathryn wrote: "In February, the Picture Book Club will explore books about dance.

Please nominate books by posting in a comment below by February 21st.

Thank you!"

I think you mean that nominations end January 21st and not February 21st, right?

Invitation to Ballet: A Celebration of Dance and Degas
The Nutcracker Doll
Frog Legs: A Picture Book of Action Verse
Swine Lake
The White Ballets
I Love to Dance

Gundula wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "In February, the Picture Book Club will explore books about dance.

Please nominate books by posting in a comment below by February 21st.

Thank you!"

I think you mean that no..."

Oops, yes thanks for catching that!

Barnyard Dance How could I forget this one?! Sandra Boynton. Great for the littlest ones--my toddler loves this book.

Thank you for the great nominations! It is now time to vote.

Please vote for the books you would most like to read with the group by listing your top five selections in a comment below. Please choose your selections from our official nominations (messages 2-12).

Votes will be accepted until January 25th. Thank you!

I somehow missed the nomination period, but I'll put in a couple of titles for reference: Barnyard Dance makes me think of Pat Hutchins' Barn Dance. And I would also think Amazing Grace belonged on here. And there's a list of Picture Books for young ballerinas that might be relevant.

I will give my votes to
Chasing Degas
Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring
The Scarecrow's Dance
Swine Lake
Alvin Ailey.

My goodness! There are so many enticing titles on this list already, I see some fifteen books I am going to have to order from the library ...

Chasing Degas
Josephine Wants to Dance
The Scarecrow's Dance
Tallulah's Tutu
Deer Dancer

My votes are for:
Tallulah's Tutu
Max
Fancy Nancy: Budding Ballerina
Footwork: The Story of Fred and Adele Astaire
Lucy's Dance

Here's my five: Max, Flora and the Flamingo, Fancy Nancy: Budding Ballerina Barn Dance!, and Chasing Degas

Chasing Degas
The Scarecrow's Dance
Swine Lake
Jingle Dancer
Secret Of The Dance

I'll abstain - too hard to choose! (If my library doesn't have some of the chosen, my bad luck.)

The votes are in:

Chasing Degas

Swine Lake

Tallulah's Tutu

The Scarecrow's Dance

Max

Sixth/Alternate:

Fancy Nancy: Budding Ballerina

I'm so excited! :-)

This list now becomes our Master List and General Discussion for picture books about dance. Feel free to continue adding books and reviews to our list.

Jan Ormerod is one of my favorite author-illustrators. Even though Ballet Sisters: The Newest Dancer is just a little 'Easy Reader' it's delightful, and educational. I will be looking for the companion: Ballet Sisters: The Duckling And The Swan and I recommend that all who love ballet see if their library has either of these.

I just got a copy of Chasing Degas and it looks wonderful. Can't wait to read it.

I just got my copies of Tallulah's Tutu and Fancy Nancy: Budding Ballerina (I really enjoy the Fancy Nancy series). I'm looking forward to reading and commenting.

Tricia, Denise, don't forget to make your comments in the discussion thread for the chosen Club Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

(This list is for future reference; it includes books that didn't win the vote, or have come out since this discussion began.)

I have created a listopia called Picture Books About Dance. Please take a moment to vote, or add books you find missing. Note that since I ran into the capacity limit (only 100 books per voter on each listopia), I had to split the list into two and I ended up putting the more "ballerina" specific books from the overflow on another already existing list: Picture books for young ballerinas.

Fantastic - off to see if I have any favorites I should vote on!

Wonderful! Thank you so much :-)

Bijou, Bonbon and Beau: The Kittens Who Danced for Degas -- cute, especially if you like cats ;-) The illustrations are lovely, in the style of Degas.

Drumheller Dinosaur Dance

Rollicking, rhythmic, fun, Robert Heidbreder's Drumheller Dinosaur Dance is in my opinion truly in many ways a simply perfect choice for young dinosaur enthusiasts (although the fact that there are indeed quite a number of somewhat advanced vocabulary choices featured might well render the author's verses a trifle too potentially difficult for especially recently independent readers to tackle Drumheller Dinosaur Dance on their own, but then again, considering that with its song and dance like rhymes and word-based fun and games, a book such as Drumheller Dinosaur Dance does generally much more seem to be destined and to be considered to be shared with children and even groups of many children than for children to read this quietly and on their own, in other words, I would consider Drumheller Dinosaur Dance first and foremost if not even totally a fun and engagingly entertaining read-aloud).

Now the above having been said, I feel that I do have to reiterate and point out that Drumheller Dinosaur Dance is not in ANY way whatsoever mean to be a scientific, a factual introduction to dinosaurs as an extinct group of rhetoric animals, as the featured dinosaurs, who come out at night as skeletons to dance and frolic before once again come dawn returning to their badlands resting places, they are simply the main characters in a fun little fantasy of dancing fun and a wee bit of mayhem (with Bill Slavin's and Esperanca Melo's accompanying pictures providing and enjoyable and indeed rather wonderful mirror to and for Robert Heidbreder's lively and engaging poetry). Highly recommended (but with the caveat that while the illustrated dinosaur skeletons dancing and making a generally joyful noise is indeed visually fun and entertaining, the pictures are by the necessity of Drumheller Dinosaur Dance taking place at night, rather darkly hued and I do wonder if very very sensitive children might perhaps be a bit frightened of seeing dinosaur skeletons dancing, playing musical instruments, romping around and shaking their bones).

Cute, to mix a bit of actual science, dinosaurs, and dancing.

So, iiuc, it's more of a party kind of a dance, not a performance, and not really a formal ball, either... right?

Cheryl wrote: "Cute, to mix a bit of actual science, dinosaurs, and dancing.

So, iiuc, it's more of a party kind of a dance, not a performance, and not really a formal ball, either... right?"

Nothing at all formal, just a bunch of dinosaur skeletons dancing the night away.

Amy the Dancing Bear is such a lovely story about a girl who is inspired by a beautiful summer night to express her joy in movement, and does so despite having to assert herself against her loving, but tired, mother.

Sounds great. Thank you, Cheryl!

Danza!: Amalia Hernández and El Ballet Folklórico de México by Duncan Tonatiuh, belongs on this list, too.

Cheryl wrote: "Danza!: Amalia Hernández and El Ballet Folklórico de México by Duncan Tonatiuh, belongs on this list, too."

Thanks for adding it. Definitely deserves to be here. (I know we both found it underwhelming it is generally well regarded and she is an important figure in dance.)

Brave Ballerina: The Story of Janet CollinsLyrically told story with lovely illustrations about inspirational and talented ballerina, Janet Collins, first African American principal dancer at the Metropolitan Opera House. I enjoyed reading it and I appreciated learning more about Collins, though I did feel the text was too sparse on some important details that only the Author's Note filled in (this appears to be an unfortunate trend in picture book biographies these days, or maybe it's just the ones I've been reading lately). Adults reading this should start with the biographical information in the back, then read the story, IMO. And they will probably need to fill in a few details to the younger readers who may not like to sit through the whole bio in the back.