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
As the title suggests, Molly (Molly Goes Shopping, 2003) is learning to ride a bicycle the hard way. Unfortunately, and fortunately, she crashes right into a driving instructor who clues her in to the secret of navigation—don’t look directly at whatever it is you’re trying not to run into, or, “Keep your eye on the road!” The best part of this simple story is the soft, old-fashioned colored-pencil illustrations of Molly, a charming young pig wearing a pumpkin-top helmet, and her kind, kerchief-sporting, blue-frocked Grandma, who might be a bear. Details such as the startled mouse waitress’s joggled ice cream sundaes as Molly hits the instructor, and the scrappy stance of the mean kids who taunt Molly, are priceless. Youngsters may be comforted to discover that riding a bike may not be easy, but with a little practice and some sound advice, they might even surpass Grandma down the road. A quirky, winsome crash course for aspiring cyclists. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 3, 2005
ISBN: 91-29-66156-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: R&S/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
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
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