Let's Celebrate Dance and Diversity!

Happy book birthday -- on March 3, 2020, to be exact -- to the new picture book Let's Dance! by author Valerie Bolling and illustrator Maine Diaz. I've been in contact with Valerie and am excited to both tell you and show you more about her lively new book and how it came to be!

Author Valerie Bolling

In only about 60 words of rhyming text, Let's Dance! manages to introduce readers to 10 types of dance and spread the messages that dance is fun and dance is for everyone. Valerie says she knew from the very beginning that she wanted this book to celebrate diversity and wanted her words "to promote a world in which marginalized and/or underrepresented children can see themselves and feel valued and heard." 

Luckily Valerie's editor Jes Negron agreed and expanded on her vision by making the theme more global. "Where I saw Tappity-Tap/Fingers Snap as tap dance, she imagined flamenco from Spain," says Valerie. "I envisioned the electric slide for Glide and Slide/Side to Side, but Jes suggested long-sleeve dancing from China. I was thrilled with her ideas!"

As you can see from the two images above, Maine Diaz really delivered on Valerie's vision of diversity and the global theme. Her 20 amazingly vibrant illustrations, including images of a boy in a wheelchair and a child in a tutu whose gender is not discernible, really pop off the page.

Maine also weaves different shapes into her illustrations -- like large and small circles and curls in the two images above and triangles, stars, and more in many others. When the smaller shapes scattered throughout the book are combined, they add a celebratory feel, acting like confetti!

Let's Dance! is Valerie's debut picture book, and she's busy writing more. You can keep up with her on Twitter and Instagram, and of course you can celebrate dance and diversity by reading her book!

Celebration and Surprise in Lola's Fandango

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of my blog, and I'm so happy to have made it to this important milestone. Keeping up with the blog has been difficult at times, but it looks like Picture Books & Pirouettes is here to stay! 

To celebrate, I'm featuring a lovely picture book to be published by Barefoot Books in October 2011. It's called Lola's Fandango, written by Anna Witte and illustrated by Micha Archer. It has quite a celebratory cover, don't you think? Many thanks go out to Barefoot Books for sending me an advance review copy of the book.

Lola's Fandango is a story about a little girl named Lola who is jealous of her older sister Clementina--of how pretty her name is, how long and beautiful her hair is, how talented she is at painting. Feeling sad and alone, Lola seeks refuge in her parents' closet, where she finds a stack of old boxes. 

Inside one of the boxes is a pair of black shoes with high heels and little red polka dots. Lola soon finds out from her father (Papi) that her mother (Mami) used to be a very good flamenco dancer. Papi shows Lola an old photograph of Mami wearing the shoes and wearing a special dress with ruffles and polka dots. He also promises to secretly teach Lola how to dance a traditional flamenco dance called the fandango.

First, Papi teaches Lola the rhythm of the dance. Then how to stomp her feet. And finally, how to move her arms and hands. Lola practices all year long, gaining confidence and developing the spirit and attitude needed to be a great flamenco dancer.

She snaps her fingers: Snap! Snap!

Spring carries flower petals through the air.

She taps her heels: Tap! Tap!

Summer clouds dot the blue sky.

She whirls her skirt: Swish!

Fall blows leaves and raindrops across the roof.

She stomps her feet: Toca toca TICA!

Even though this is a "quiet" book in some ways, it is also full of sounds that make it great for reading aloud. The cars go honk hooonk outside Lola's window. Lola's dancing shoes go toca toca tica on the floor. And the unseen neighbor downstairs pounds BAM! BAM! BAM! against his ceiling when Lola's practicing makes too much noise. 

My two favorite parts to read aloud are the repeating toca toca tica of Lola's dance shoes and the repeating rhythm of the dance: 1-2-3  4-5-6  7-8  9-10  11-12. The book also comes with a narrated version of the story, which is very handy if you aren't quite sure how to count out the fandango rhythm. The CD, which is narrated by the Amador family of the Pan-Latin musical and singing ensemble Sol y Canto, also includes some flamenco music and real foot stomping in the background.

The book's vibrant illustrations beautifully capture the movement and emotion in the story, and they somehow mesh reality and whimsy together into a style that really works. I also love the layout and creative use of space in the book. Elements of illustrated pages sometimes find their way onto otherwise empty pages of text, forming designs around the words or just floating freely amidst the white spaces. Much care seems to have been taken to give each full-page spread a unique design, giving the book a great deal of visual appeal.

Toward the end of the book, Papi, Lola, and Clementina plan a surprise birthday party for Mami, and Lola decides she wants to surprise Mami with a flamenco dance at the party. However, she is feeling insecure because she doesn't have a fancy flamenco dress like Mami used to have. Lola's father reassures her that she has the courage to dance without the dress, and Lola finds the strength to carry on and to finally have her own special moment in the spotlight.

But, just before Lola is about to actually dance, Papi gives her a surprise gift--her very own ruffled polka-dot dress (he must have read her mind!) and a new pair of dancing shoes. In the spirit of surprises, I have a gift to give away to one lucky reader of my blog, too!

Thanks to the generosity of Barefoot Books, you will soon be able to enter to win either a copy of Lola's Fandango or one of three additional Barefoot Books related to dance. Once I get the giveaway details ready later this month, I'll post them here and let everyone know on Picture Books & Pirouettes' new Facebook page. Stay tuned!

Update: Since I wrote this post, Barefoot Books has published a Q&A with author Anna Witte and illustrator Micha Archer. You can check out that blog post here.

Two Dance Books Win Prestigious Honors

A few weeks ago, the American Library Association (ALA) announced the winners of the 2010 ALA Youth Media Awards, which include some of the most prestigious awards for children's literature. I was a little late in looking up all the winners, but when I finally did, I was overjoyed to see two nonfiction picture books about dance recognized. 

The ALA awards the Robert F. Sibert Medal each year for the "most distinguished informational book" for children. Only one book can win the actual award, but additional books can be recognized as "honor books" if warranted. (This is true for most if not all of the awards.) Although a nondance book won the actual Sibert Medal this year, Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring was named one of two Sibert Honor Books. 

The Pura Belpre Award is given each year to a Latino author and to a Latino illustrator of books that "best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience." In the author category, George Ancona's Ole Flamenco, which I reviewed a few months ago, was named one of three Pura Belpre Honor Books.    

You can read more about all the 2010 ALA Youth Media Awards, including the famous Newbery and Caldecott Medals, on ALA's website here. You can also find an entertaining blog post focused on the book awards at A Fuse #8 Production. Go dance books!!

Song, Dance, and Music Collide in 'Olé Flamenco'

George Ancona is an award-winning photographer and author with a rich Mexican-American heritage. According to his website, he considers himself a "people photographer" and loves to find people who can teach him new things about interesting topics. He then designs children's books using the photographs he takes and the stories he collects. 

Olé Flamenco (just published by multicultural publisher Lee & Low Books) is Ancona's latest creation. He actually studied flamenco guitar years ago and now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the flamenco community thrives. So, it is only fitting that he would write this book, which is primarily a history and portrait of the art form known as flamenco.

Janira Cordova (the girl featured on the cover) is the youngest member of a Spanish dance company called Flamenco's Next Generation. In the book, Ancona follows Janira as she rehearses flamenco with her company and performs at the annual Spanish Market celebration in Santa Fe. Along the way, readers learn about the Gypsy origins of flamenco and how the various components--song, music, and dance--developed over time.

Words and photos show the "rapid stamping of the heels and thumping of the soles" and the twists and turns of the arms, hands, and fingers that help define the dance. They also show the sharp, strong movements of male dancers and the flair and passion with which women swish their skirts back and forth through the air.

The back of the book contains a glossary and pronunciation guide for Spanish terms, as well as a list of references. Kirkus reviewed the book positively here, but the reviewer suggested that a list of recommended recordings and videos would have been a nice addition. As I'm not an expert in flamenco, I can't really address this comment. But I did happen to find a YouTube video of Flamenco's Next Generation performing, and I think I even see Janira in it.

During the video, you might hear some of the audience members hollering "Olé," which is a shout of approval and encouragement. To this book, as well, I say Olé!

This is my first time participating in Nonfiction Monday--a day when bloggers all over the kidlitosphere blog about nonfiction books for kids. You can read the whole round-up of posts at Shelf-employed. And, before I go, thanks to Lee & Low for my review copy of Olé Flamenco.