Tag dance

Ella Bella Ballerina and The Magic Toyshop

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Ella Bella Ballerina and The Magic Toyshop
James Mayhew
Orchard Books

Alongside his books focussing on famous artists and their work, James Mayhew has created the Ella Bella Ballerina series to introduce children to famous ballets and this is his latest.

When young Ella enters her ballet class and steps onto the stage, her teacher invites the children to dance with the toys placed around the magical music box.

Staying behind after the lesson to help, Ella replays the music, starts to dance and finds herself outside an enchanted toyshop.

Therein she discovers an amazing world of dancing dolls and other fantastic objects all cared for by a kindly toymaker and his apprentice.

Particularly exciting is a pair of can-can dancing dolls that are in love.

But when two families come into the shop, both demanding to buy them, it seems as though the pair will be separated.
They’re heartbroken at the thought: could there perhaps be a way that Ella can help them to stay together forever?

Mayhew’s introduction to the classic ballet ‘La Boutique Fantasque’ is utterly enchanting. His vibrant scenes will captivate all who love ballet, young and not so young; and for those who want to know a little more, the final page provides information about the origins of the ballet, first performed in London in 1919 by the Ballet Russe.

Flora and the Peacocks

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Flora and the Peacocks
Molly Idle
Chronicle Books
Flora, so I believe, has already starred in two previous picture books though this is my first encounter with the diminutive dancing delight. Herein she encounters a pair of preening peacocks who proceed to use their gloriously coloured tails in tandem with her fan, mirroring her every move until one, the rather more curious of the pair, crosses the gutter and approaches the girl. Thereafter we have a paired dance on the verso and on the recto, something of a solo drama. Eventually however, we have this …

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After which Flora reaches out (here readers can lift the tails or lower them as the fancy takes them).

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What then follows is a tug of war over her fan,

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orchestrated by readers moving an arched page (we know threesomes can be problematic where friendship is concerned) until the delicate fan becomes two pieces and Flora flounces off-stage in despair

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leaving the birds to work out a solution – which they duly do – with an amazing fold-out finale that more than makes up for the disaster and places a smiling Flora centre stage in a dazzling display of iridescent beauty and bewitchment.
Beautifully choreographed by Molly Idle, this breath-taking, wordless pas de trois is a real virtuoso performance, both on stage and off, that will have readers transfixed and wanting encore after encore. And don’t you just love the way those wispy willow fronds form a kind of proscenium arch for the whole show.

Those who particularly enjoy wordless picture books may also like:

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Dog on a Train
Kate Prendergast
Old Barn Books
This wordless debut picture book begins with a boy dashing downstairs and dropping his hat in his haste to leave the house. His dog spots said hat and chases off down the road after the boy, all the way to the tube station.

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‘Dogs must be carried’ says the sign at the turnstile and as luck would have it, a girl comes along and takes Dog down the escalator onto the platform.

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Dog then boards an underground train, makes the journey, is jostled by crowds, almost loses the hat and finally catches up with the boy and gives him the hat.
Kate Prendergast’s detailed drawings are beautifully executed in soft pencil, with just the red and white stripes of the boy’s hat and red and white details on his trainers standing out, giving a splash of colour on every spread and drawing the eye to the main characters. The pacing of the story is cleverly managed by the use of whole page, double spread, split page and comic strip images.

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A warm story about friendship and determination: wonderful for developing visual literacy.

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Jane Ray’s The Nutcracker

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Dolci is entranced by the story.

The Nutcracker
Jane Ray
Orchard Books
From its peep around the curtain opening I was totally captivated by Jane Ray’s rendition of the well-known Nutcracker story. With one breathtakingly beautiful spread after another she turns it into something truly magical – a must have book for this Christmas season (and all year round).
The tale of Clara and her unusual gift – the toy soldier Nutcracker from her toymaker godfather – is tenderly and eye-wateringly rendered as readers are treated to first, the anticipation of things to come in the welcoming guests to the party…

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the gathering around the tree scene and the arrival of Herr Drosselmeyr. Then follows Clara’s sadness at the accidentally broken arm of her Nutcracker, followed by another happy gathering – around the dinner table this time.
Possibly my favourite view of all comes next: the one Clara sees having crept downstairs from her bed when ‘The house was shadowy in the moonlight. The candles were all snuffed out and the fire had burnt down to a heap of glowing embers. The only sounds were the ticking of the grandfather clock, and an owl calling from the snowy garden. ‘ (How beautifully the prose flows.)
In a dark corner by the tree, Clara could just make out tiny lights glowing.’

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Next come scenes of the mouse army and the toy soldiers rallying and the challenge of the Mouse King by a transformed Nutcracker who, aided and abetted by Clara, sees off the attackers. Thereafter comes the voyage of Clara and the Nutcracker to his realm, the Kingdom of Sweets, to see the Sugar Plum Fairy …

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and the other amazing dancing delights from every land. This, as adults know, culminates in an invitation for Clara and the Nutcracker to join the dazzling dance …

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and the dream fades … to Christmas morning.
The awed silence of my audience, quickly followed by “again, again” requests, speaks for itself.

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