Beautiful Ballerina
“Beautiful ballerina, / you are the dance.” In this pared-down picture book, multi-award-winning Nelson’s moving poem, addressed directly to young dancers, makes a harmonious match with Kuklin’s expressive photos of real-life students at the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Each spread combines rhythmic lines with a photo of a young ballerina in motion, highlighted against the emptiness of a colored background. Nelson is clearly speaking to African Americans: “The Ancestors have / produced a swan. / You wear the slaves’ genes / with nobility. / You dance the dreams / of generations gone.” And her closing line feels like an incantation for young black artists: “Dance all of the people free.” But children won’t need to be black, or female, or even dancers to find inspiration in the graceful words and in the pictures of the focused, joyful, and wholly engaged young African American ballerinas. Final notes about the Dance Theatre of Harlem and short biographies of the girls who appear in the pages close this celebratory title. Grades K-3. --Gillian Engberg