The Jellybeans and the Big Dance

If you have a little one who loves to dance, The Jellybeans and the Big Dance will be a favorite in your family. In addition, the story should help bring a greater appreciation of other youngsters who aren't so devoted to movement. Laura Numeroff and Nate Evans wrote the story. Lynn Munsinger illustrated the pages. Both the writing and images are wonderful. I must admit a slight preference for the visual. After all, dance is very visual for the audience . . . and so is this book for the reader (or the person read to). Emily is a wolf who loves to dance . . . so much so that she rarely stops dancing. Excited about her first dance class, she's chagrined to find that one of her classmates (a rabbit) is reading a book, another (a pig) is drawing, and a third (a cat) is playing with a soccer ball. What? I was immediately amused when the dance teacher introduces herself as Miss Tingly-Weezer. The soccer playing cat is Nicole. The drawing pig is Bitsy (who really likes to paint). Anna, the rabbit, is rather shy. (Maybe you would be, too, around a wolf if you had read about the three little pigs). Emily is a little more discouraged when she finds out that they will be dancing to "Oh, Little Bug." Just when things are looking their darkest, Emily notices that the first letters of their first names spell out "BEAN." After a few more classes Emily is discouraged and tells her mother that the dance should be called "The No-Good Bugs." As a treat, her mother takes Emily to Petunia's (an ice cream and candy store). After the next disastrous class, Emily gives each of the other girls a bag of jellybeans. "'Jellybeans are all different flavors, but they still go well together,' said Emily. 'Maybe we could, too. We can be the dancing Jellybeans!'" With Emily's encouragement, they find ways to help one another have more fun. Anna shows about bugs in books. Bitsy helps the girls design costumes. Nicole taught exercises to help get into shape. Emily helped with the dance steps. At the last minute before the performance, the young dancers look great. But, oops! Emily is scared! The other dancers took her mind off her fears and they went on to dance well and have a lot of fun. "They twirled and skipped. They tiptoed and jumped. They danced and pranced and boogie-woogied." After that, who knows? Maybe soccer could be next. But surely, they need some jellybeans. Now, what could be nicer than this story. For little girls who love pink . . . this book has a lot of pink. Go for it!

Read JellyBeans and the Big Dance with one or more children as the "kickoff" for opening a discussion with children who are striving to make friends, and make friendships work. As a bonus, this story also shows how to problem solve. The sparkling book cover represents the way four young girls (represented by animals) learn to accept each other in spite of their differences. Thrown together in a dance class they cleverly discover their group name, Jellybeans. The real sparkle begins when each girl contributes a unique talent in order to make the (ugh!) "Oh, Little Bug" dance a success. This group of four become solid friends who will be equally successful at Jellybean soccer, thus a new discussion may be opened -- how will they each contribute? The Jellybean and the Big Dance is a delightful story, entertainingly illustrated. Bravo to Laura Numeroff, Nate Evans and Lynn Munsinger. I hope we'll see more books about the adorable Jellybeans and how they solve another problem.

The cover of "The Jellybeans and the Big Dance" immediately catches the eye. It's colorful, well-designed and excellently illustrated by Lynn Munsinger. The sparkles on the cover attract both kids and parents. The engaging story by the talented writers, Laura Numeroff and Nate Evans was an immediate hit with my grandchildren. They were caught up in Emily's adventures. They admired her dancing and how she twirled and danced everywhere. They were sad at the thought that the other kids in her dancing class didn't want to dance or to be there. But, finally, when Emily brought everyone together with jellybeans, good ideas for teamwork, her passion for dancing and her fun-loving ways, they were excited. My grandkids got a bit scared when Emily momentarily forget her steps for the recital number, "Oh, Little Bug." But they had faith in Emily and only held their breath a little. They also understood right away the wise message of this adorable book.

Emily loves to dance and is taking her first dance class where she anticipates she'll meet others who love to dance - but instead she meets girls who like very different things. Will she be able to save their dance recital from disaster? Turns out the girls have different strengths: Lynne Munsinger's fun drawings make for an excellent embellishment of this story of differences brought together.

I bought this book for my little girls recently, and it's now their favorite book! They particularly like, and can relate to, the differences between the characters since my older daughter is athletic and my younger one is artistic. As a parent, I like how all the characters interact and work together successfully with their varying interests. It's a cute story and the illustrations are adorable. I think my girls like looking at the pictures as much as they like the story.