When you first pick up this pink book with the three little girl ballerinas on the cover, you think this will be a book your little girls will love, and that's true. But the very young dancers—Nicole, Shekinah, Veronica, Abbey, and Monica—are not your everyday dancers. While they've always wanted to dance just like other girls, all of them have cerebral palsy or other muscle disorders, and some use wheelchairs or walkers to get around. Nevertheless, they take weekly ballet classes with their ballet teacher, physical therapist Joann Ferrara, and prepare for their upcoming recital. Dressed in pink tutus and ballet shoes, they perform onstage for cheering parents, friends, classmates, and teachers. This winning and inspiring color photo essay, printed on pink paper, takes the girls, each assisted and physically supported by a helper, through their performance of three dances. The final pages profile each girl, their teacher, their helpers, and provide information on cerebral palsy.

If your children have never encountered children with physical disabilities, this book will give them a matter-of-fact but sensitive introduction. Play music from “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake” and have your children move to it in their own way.


Themes: BALLET DANCERS. CEREBRAL PALSY. DANCING. PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. PERSEVERANCE. PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED.