This book feels a lot like the Madeline books. There are 8 ballerinas in Messina. They do things in 2 lines of 4. They all have names that end in "ina". Then one day, a third ballerina comes. This messes up their routine. The teacher organizes then in three lines of three and everything is good again. The extensive repetition of the same ending makes this fun.
The book tells the story of a princess and how she rescues a baby unicorn. For each page, the top is the story, while the bottom shows ballet moves. The purpose of the book is to encourage dancing. The story is a bonus. There is no single author, just the dance group. Proceeds are donated to dance organizations.
That being said, the story is not bad. The illustrations are well done. A dancer would probably really love the book. For non dancers, the top half can be read as a regular children's book.
Jessi's Secret Language: A Graphic Novel (The Baby-Sitters Club #12) (The Baby-Sitters Club Graphix) by Ann M. Martin and Chan Chau
The twelfth babysitters club graph novel explores the deaf, ballet and sign language. Jessi is in a new ballet class and is one of the better kids in the class. Other kids feel jealous of her. She feels it may be because she is the youngest and newest girl. (The fact that she is the only black girl in the class is never mentioned.) However, she continues to work and gets a lead role in the upcoming ballet. Meanwhile, she also gets the job of babysitting a new family. She goes twice awake and learns sign language to communicate with a deaf boy and his hearing sister. The sister struggles with being looked down on because she is always helping her brother. Jessi helps her to overcome this. She also helps both to get good friends. She is also able to communicate with the deaf sister of a girl in her ballet class. For the opening performance, Jessi invites all her friends and the deaf class. They all enjoy the ballet. This one is a nice positive message that seems to have fewer false dramas than other BSC books.
