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Summary
Summary
Once there was a ballerina named Belinda. Belinda loved to dance. She went to ballet school every day and practiced very hard. But Belinda had a big problem. Actually, Belinda had two big problems: her left foot and her right foot. When a trio of big-mouthed dance critics declare that Belinda has no future in ballet, Belinda decides to give up dancing forever. But what's a dancer to do if she can't dance? A playful text and whimsical illustrations by an exciting newcomer set the stage for a story in which the size of the heroine's feet is rivaled only by the size of her heart.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 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 jets, rverences, 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
From her tight topknot to her slender ankles, Belinda is every inch the ballerina. "But Belinda had... two big problems: her left foot and her right foot." Belinda's feet are immensely long and tapered, though not ungainly. After a disastrous audition-"They're like flippers," a theater critic yells-Belinda hangs up her flamingo-pink tutu and pointe slippers, and becomes a server in a small restaurant, where the "customers liked her because she was quick and light on her feet." This dead-end job turns out to be her big break, for when a musical trio performs at the cafe, "they played a sweet yearning lilt of a tune, and before she knew what she was doing... Belinda was dancing!" In this triumphant moment, the heroine is suspended in mid-leap with a blissful smile on her face, while the musicians jam and the chef gawks. Young, in her debut picture book, implies that Belinda communicates through her art, by giving the delicate girl only one spoken line: the gracious "Oh my, yes!" spoken when the chef invites her to dance for his eclectic, appreciative customers and again when a special customer-a dance impresario-asks her to join the Grand Metropolitan Ballet. Shades of candy pink, canary yellow and cobalt blue set an optimistic backdrop for this tale of just deserts and an irrepressible urge to dance. Ages 3-8. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
At the Annual Ballet Recital audition, Belinda is rejected before she even dances, due to her oversize feet. Working at a restaurant, she is unable to resist dancing to the band. Her performance brings in crowds--and the maestro from the Grand Metropolitan Ballet, who hires her at once. Cartoon-style drawings filled with movement and color keep the message from being too heavy-handed. From HORN BOOK Fall 2003, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Face the facts, Belinda has a problem, in fact, "two big problems: her left foot and her right foot." Tall, thin Belinda is a talented teenage dancer, but her feet are far too large for her to advance in dance. (Her yard-long, pink pointe shoes are nearly as long as her legs.) In Young's first published work, she imbues her starring character with confidence and good sense as well as talent, which shows in the illustrations as well as the text. Belinda doesn't bemoan her fate; she just gets on with life. When three scary-looking audition judges (with the delicious names of Sir Fostercheese the Third, George Peach Crumbcake, and Winona Busywitch) tell Belinda she will never be a dancer because of her feet, she hangs up her pointe shoes and tutu and gets a job in a restaurant. But talent will find a way, and Belinda works her way up to dancing nightly at the restaurant with a jazz trio. There she is discovered and makes the leap to stardom at the Grand Metropolitan Ballet, with the same clueless critics now applauding her performance. Belinda is just happy to be dancing, and "as for the judges, she didn't care a fig!" Young shows considerable potential in both her lively gouache paintings and her restrained, polished prose that captures the heart of a dancer. In a rather crowded corps de ballet of recent dance titles for children, Belinda stands out for more than her big feet. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
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
