Dance, Tanya

My daughter and I absolutely LOVED this book when she was growing up. The story is beautiful and the drawings are fabulous. A book about the longings of a younger sister, who in her heart is ready to dance, even though she is told she's too little. This is THE book I give to [kid] girls!! Their mothers will love it too.

Little Tanya loves to dance. Like her sister she practices plies, pirouettes and arabesques and the two often practice together, but as of yet Tanyette (as she is sometimes called) is too young for lessons. This all changes one day when her family, celebrating the performance of big sister as a flower in Swan Lake, finds out that little Elise is no longer the cute toddler mimicking the actions of her older sister, but a little girl that is ready for academy Five Stars. A delightful book that shows two sisters who share a love of dance. My five y.o. daughter loves the talk of `first, second, fourth and fifth' positions. Good read-aloud, the artwork is pleasing with it soft watercolor drawings. A sample of text follows: And while nobody was looking, Tanya found her tutu, and her scarf. And Tanya danced too. All alone. The music played loud and sweet, and she did a plie and arabesque and five grand jetes right across the floor. "Dance, Tanya," her sister said, and her mother held her breath. Grandma looked over her glasses. "You have two dancers in your family," she said. Everyone in the room clapped. Elise did too.

This was a childhood favorite of mine, and the pages are tattered from reading it over and over. A young girl wants to be a dancer and is saddened because her older sister can take lessons, but she is too young. She looks up to her graceful old sister and dances with her, but wishes she herself could be in the spotlight...The book is a wonderful story for all ages, young and old.

My 3 and 6 year old daughters enjoy the story for the talkabout dancing and for the "little sister looks up to big sister" and "little sister feeling left out" themes. The adults in the family get misty-eyed over a little girl's discovery of the beauty of dance (if you've ever shed a tear of joy when Linnea is finally atop the bridge in Monet's Garden, you'll know what I mean). This will be one to save for the next generation :-)Beautiful water-color-ish illustrations appealed to all ages in our family.