Face the facts, Belinda has a problem, in fact, “two big problems: her left foot and her right foot.” Tall, thin Belinda is a talented teenage dancer, but her feet are far too large for her to advance in dance. (Her yard-long, pink pointe shoes are nearly as long as her legs.) In Young’s first published work, she imbues her starring character with confidence and good sense as well as talent, which shows in the illustrations as well as the text. Belinda doesn’t bemoan her fate; she just gets on with life. When three scary-looking audition judges (with the delicious names of Sir Fostercheese the Third, George Peach Crumbcake, and Winona Busywitch) tell Belinda she will never be a dancer because of her feet, she hangs up her pointe shoes and tutu and gets a job in a restaurant. But talent will find a way, and Belinda works her way up to dancing nightly at the restaurant with a jazz trio. There she is discovered and makes the leap to stardom at the Grand Metropolitan Ballet, with the same clueless critics now applauding her performance. Belinda is just happy to be dancing, and “as for the judges, she didn’t care a fig!” Young shows considerable potential in both her lively gouache paintings and her restrained, polished prose that captures the heart of a dancer. In a rather crowded corps de ballet of recent dance titles for children, Belinda stands out for more than her big feet. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-670-03549-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A child's book that looks back with nostalgia on lost youth. Stella is a kitten who loves to dance, charming in turn the Tall One, the Gentle One, the Littlest One with the Loudest Voice, and the Fuzzy One with Floppy Ears with her pirouettes and arabesques. But she grows up, as everyone does, and leaves her dancing days behind for other things: stalking bugs, sitting in windows—and bearing a litter of dancing kittens. Asher (With All My Heart, With All My Mind, not reviewed, etc.) has crafted a simple story with a clever cat's-voice perspective. But while Stella's maturation parallels the children's to a certain extent (" 'Stella is a big cat now,' said the Littlest One, 'and I am a big boy!' ”), the older children's wistful yearning for Stella's kittenish antics smacks more of an adult's sensibility than a child's. Brown's (Old Thunder and Miss Raney, 2000, etc.) wispy, washed-out ink-and-watercolor illustrations are just a little too cute, sometimes anthropomorphizing Stella (what cat would submit gracefully to being dressed in a doll's blouse and skirt?) and sometimes opting for a more realistic representation. It is, nevertheless, a sweet story that may give children some way to relate to their elders' sighs of regret that they, too, are growing up. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-201613-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
PLB 0-688-17054-4 Henkes offers a bare-bones arrangement of words to convey snowfall, the creatures that enjoy it, and the passing of the day. “The snow falls and falls all night. In the morning everything is white. And everyone wants to play. Oh!” Animals and children are introduced with the tinkered refrain: “The cat wants to play. Sneak, sneak, sneak, brave young cat. The dog wants to play. Run, run, run, clever old dog.” The reasons for the words “brave” and “clever” are never shown in any tangible way. The snowscape is depicted in a dreamy and lovely wash of color by Dronzek, who gives the animals faces, but uses hats and hoods to hide the features of the children. After everyone joins in a peaceable kingdom of building, the shadows lengthen, the snow turns an evening blue, and playtime is over. For all their simplicity, the words and acts have an opacity that encumbers flow and meaning; the haiku-like spareness is employed without effect. (Picture book. 2-6)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-17053-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1999
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