One Ballerina Two - Hardcover

Vivian French worked in children's theatre for ten years as both an actor and writer, before becoming an acclaimed children's author and professional storyteller. Her picture books include Please, Princess Primrose; A Song for Little Toad (shortlisted for the 1995 Smarties Book Prize); Christmas Mouse; Christmas Kitten; Lazy Jack; a retelling of A Christmas Carol; several Walker Story Plays; and the non-fiction titles Caterpillar Caterpillar (shortlisted for the Kurt Maschler Award) and Growing Frogs. She has also written many fiction titles for young readers. She lives in Edinburgh. Jan Ormerod won several major awards for her first book, Sunshine. She has since illustrated many books for children, including the Walker titles Eat Up. Gemma; and One Ballerina Two. Jan was born and brought up in Western Australia but now lives in Cambridge with her two daughters.

Ormerod's ( 101 Things to Do with a Baby ) mastery of the art of simplicity is affirmed in this pleasingly unpretentious counting book. Accompanying French's spare text are alternating pictures of a sophisticated young ballerina in a neat black leotard and of a frisky, younger ballerina wearing wrinkled clothing and untied dancing shoes. "Ten plies" performed flawlessly by the former are followed by "nine knee bends" shakily executed by the latter. Eight graceful changements inspire "seven little jumps," and so on until the countdown culminates in "one happy hug," as the older dancer holds the younger tenderly in her arms. Accentuating the contrast between the two ballet styles is the fact that a traditional typeface describes the accomplished dancer's steps, whereas a child's scrawl identifies the diminutive dancer's moves. This is an amiable pas de deux that very young aspiring ballerinas will applaud. Ages 3-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.