Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #634447 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-22
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .10" h x 7.48" w x 9.56" l, .26 pounds
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-Belinda wants to be a ballerina. Unfortunately, she has "two big problems"-two very big feet. The snooty judges for the Annual Ballet Recital at the Grand Metropolitan Ballet simply cannot barre the sight. Belinda hangs up her lovely pink tutu and changes careers, becoming a waitress at Fred's Fine Food. Then one day, when a band shows up at the eatery, Belinda hears the music and heeds her calling. She flies through the air enchanting the customers, who pass the word on to the Maestro of the ballet. Belinda now shines on stage, dancing so grandly to the music of the band that no one notices her feet, and the judges insist that they have discovered her. Bowing with her arms full of roses, Belinda "didn't care a fig." This cheerful story, illustrated in gouache, may not be grounded in the realities of performance life, but it is amusing and hopefully will strike a chord with children who love to move but who are not perfectly proportioned. The artwork swirls about in bright blues, pinks, and purples while the page layout and Belinda's odd but beautifully positioned and danced jet‚s, r‚verences, and arabesques deserve bravas and applause. Pair this with Mary Jane Auch's Peeping Beauty (Holiday, 1993) and Elizabeth Winthrop's Dumpy La Rue (Holt, 2001) for a fine picture-book performance.
Susan Pine, New York Public Library
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
PreS-Gr. 2. When Belinda walks on stage for the Annual Ballet Recital audition, the judges spot her enormously long feet and shoo her offstage before she even has a chance to dance. Sadly hanging up her outsize pointe shoes, she walks away from her dreams of ballerinahood and takes a job waiting tables at Fred's Fine Food. One day Fred brings in a band to play for his customers. Soon Belinda is ecstatically dancing, leaping, and soaring: first for the customers, then for a ballet company maestro, then for the audience at the Grand Metropolitan Hall. A somewhat predictable plot is given a fresh and satisfying treatment, utilizing spirited gouache paintings that capture the sadness, the humor, and the triumph of Belinda's story. Some of the art is particularly notable for its evocation of mood. For every young dancer who finds that her body is not perfect (that is, almost every young dancer), the story puts physical defects into perspective and offers something to laugh about at the same time. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Amy Young trained as a fine artist at Yale and received an MFA in painting from Indiana University.