Nutcracker Season Is Here!

It's only September, but ballet schools across the country are already holding auditions for the holiday favorite The Nutcracker. I finally convinced my 8-year-old and 10-year-old daughters to try out for a local production this year. Luckily, as with many recreational ballet schools, this one tries to cast everyone who auditions. The girls auditioned last Saturday, and we have just a few days left before we find out their parts!

While we're waiting, I thought I would do a little research to see what Nutcracker-themed picture books have just been published or will be coming out soon. As I expected, I found quite a few! Here are the four I'm most looking forward to reading...

Written in verse by Kristyn Crow with illustrations by Molly Idle, Zombelina Dances The Nutcracker is a follow-up to Zombelina, which introduced readers to a young Zombie who loves to dance. In the new book, Zombelina and her friend Lizzie need to figure out how to save The Nutcracker production they're supposed to dance in at the local opera house.

Rachel Isadora's Bea in The Nutcracker is another sequel -- to Bea at Ballet. The first book was a concept book, introducing young children to the components of a ballet class. Bea in The Nutcracker breaks down the components of a classical ballet, using The Nutcracker as an example.

I don't know too much about this version of The Nutcracker by Stephanie Spinner and Peter Malone, except that it comes with a CD of the Tchaikovsky score. But the cover really draws me in, and I'd love to see more of the illustrations!

The Nutcracker Comes to America: How Three Ballet-loving Brothers Created a Holiday Tradition also piqued my interested. Written by Chris Barton with illustrations by Cathy Gendron, this book tells the story of how The Nutcracker, which is a Russian ballet, became such a special tradition in the United States.

A few years ago I wrote a post on the blog Dance Advantage about some of my favorite Nutcracker books at that time. You can read the post here, in case you are looking for more dance books this holiday season.

Do you have a favorite Nutcracker picture book? Or do any of the new ones look interesting to you? I'd love to hear!

Read & Romp Roundup: November 2013

Here, finally, is the November Read & Romp Roundup for you to enjoy over the next few weeks. Like last year, I'll be skipping a December roundup because of the sheer business of this time of year, but look out for the next call for submissions in early January. Maria from Maria's Movers and I are also planning a "Read It. Move It. Share It" post for January. It's been a while since we've collaborated, so I'm looking forward to picking up our series again in the new year. Happy holidays, everyone!!

Marta from A Bilingual Baby features two yoga-inspired picture books by Giselle Shardlow and Emily Gedyzyk. The first is The ABC's of Australian Animals: An Interactive Kids Yoga Book. You can read all about it in Spanish on Marta's blog! The second is Sophia's Jungle Adventure: A Fun and Educational Kids Yoga Story. In her post, Marta includes a link to a YouTube video about the book, in which a young girl named Sophia explores Costa Rica through yoga poses. Marta, who has been using the books to do yoga with her son, joins us from Barcelona, Spain!

At Story Snug, based in Germany, Catherine features the all-time classic Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees. She recommends using the book to stimulate discussions on friendship and originality. She also recommends buying the book's accompanying CD, which has what she refers to as a fun "calypso jungle rhythm"! On Catherine's post, you can also find out how you can use colored paper, finger paints, and wool to create portraits of the book's main character, Gerald. So adorable!

If you haven't heard about the new picture book Penguin Cha-Cha by Kristi Valiant, now is your chance! Here on her blog, Kristi discusses the importance of reading with children at home and offers tips to help cultivate the love of reading. The post also links to lots of information about Penguin Cha-Cha, including a free activity kit that goes with the book. Congratulations on the book's launch, Kristi!

In November, Angela at OMazing Kids hosted a giveaway of the new picture book Colors for Zena by Monica Wellington. Although the giveaway's no longer open, you can still read all about this book plus two others by the same author/illustrator: Apple Farmer Annie and the coloring book Color and Cook Healthy Snacks. In her post, Angela shares all the reasons she likes these books. She also shares a collection of yoga poses to go along with Apple Farmer Annie!

Elly from Little Friends shares a yoga and creative movement class inspired by the Nutcracker. Intended for children ages 5 to 12, Elly's lesson plan goes chronologically through the ballet and presents yoga poses to go along with most of the main scenes, including the party scene, the battle with the Mouse King, and the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. With photos and musical recommendations to go with almost every pose, this post is a perfect one to enjoy over the holidays!

An Interview with the Creator of Crafterina

I have a feeling that a lot of you know little girls and boys who love both ballet and crafts. And if you do, then I have a feeling you will especially enjoy hearing from our special guest today -- Vanessa Salgado! Vanessa is an accomplished dancer, dance educator, and visual artist who has combined her unique talents to create Crafterina -- who, you will find out in the following interview with Vanessa, is much more than a character in a book!

How did you come up with the idea of Crafterina?

After teaching children's dance classes across New York City for a number of years, I always seemed to encounter the same question from parents: what can we practice at home to make my child a better dancer? My answer always surprised them: don't practice the classroom exercises at home -- instead, expose your child to the arts, encourage them to play, read stories together, and share with them a love of dance. Eventually, after realizing that parents may need a bit of help encouraging creative thinking and moving at home, I was inspired to combine my dancing, illustrating, and teaching skills to create Crafterina.

Crafterina is a storybook, craft book, and dance lesson in one. When I was developing the character, I wanted to inspire young thinkers and movers to use their imaginations to create art and learn more about the world around them. I understood great value in interdisciplinary learning, and I believe Crafterina’s Read-Create-Dance approach is the secret to achieving our inspiring tagline of CREATE YOUR DREAM. This is the big lesson behind Crafterina: you can be anything you want to be and you have the power to make it happen!

Crafterina is such a unique idea! When you were creating her, did you envision how the book and the crafts might be used in a home setting?

The book was designed to unite parent and child in a creative quest at home. It is perfect as a nighttime story, or as a weekend dance and craft activity. By using simple household craft tools and supplies, children are encouraged to create crafts and use their imagination to go on dancing adventures. Embedded in the text are simple do-it-yourself craft instructions, making it easy to create crafts together as you read. 

The storybook and website are also an excellent tool and resource for dance educators. We hope to inspire more teachers to encourage creative thinking and moving in the classroom and at home. For more tips on how the book and crafts can be used, please visit our website: www.Crafterina.com. 

I noticed that Crafterina is also unique in the way she looks, especially the fact that she doesn’t have facial features. What was your reasoning behind this?

As the storyline developed, I felt it was important to create a character that all children could identify with. Our society has an immense focus on facial and physical beauty. The true beauty in the art of dance is not what one’s face looks like, but rather how the body is able to communicate through movement. The Crafterina character also embraces diversity and spreads a message of universality. To further this belief, we offer the Crafterina book in five additional styles so that all children can imagine they are the main character -- a creative, bright, beautiful, and talented artist!

Each child has a voice and a gift to share with the world. As grown-ups, our responsibility is to encourage young minds to believe in themselves and follow their dreams. We need more positive thinkers, role models, and leaders creating our world. Crafterina is a character to inspire a love for the art of dance in all readers and to spread the message that EVERYONE CAN DANCE!

That's a very inspiring message, and one that all children can embrace...especially when it involves crafts! Speaking of crafts, do you have a best-selling or most-popular craft? They all look like so much fun!  

Our Playtime Tableau has become a very popular craft and is very easy to create. Simply visit the Crafterina Etsy Shop to purchase and download one instantly. Once the craft is printed upon two pages of cardstock paper, carefully cut out and fold the backdrop and dancing characters to make them 3D. This particular craft is not only a fun toy for children. It also inspires thinking like a choreographer. Playing with the idea of symmetry, asymmetry, and stage directions, children learn from an early age how to create patterns and formations.

I like your idea of having crafts that go along with the Crafterina book but also having extra crafts available for purchase. So many possibilities this way! Would you have any recommendations for picture books that some of the extra crafts could be paired with?

I absolutely love using picture books to enhance learning for young dancers. For example, Nutcracker season is right around the corner. The Crafterina Etsy Shop is full of Nutcracker tableaus, puppet theaters, and masks to help bring this storybook ballet to life! One of my favorite picture book versions of The Nutcracker is a gorgeous pop-up book by Nick Denchfield with illustrations by Sue Scullard. The pop-up paper construction makes the story come to life!

Another series of popular ballet crafts are our Carnival of the Animals puppet theater, masks, and coloring pages. My favorite version of this whimsical tale is by Classical Music for Kids, with commentary by Barrie Carson Turner and illustrations by Sue Williams. The book even comes with a CD of Camille Saint-Saëns’ famous Carnival of the Animals score. 

For my third and final book recommendation, I'd like to highlight the board book Little Green by Keith Baker. A short and sweet story, this book is an excellent tool for dance educators looking to introduce the idea of pathways in a fun and imaginative way for their young students.

These all sound great. I've actually been wanting to get my hands on a copy of Carnival of the Animals for a few years now, so you have inspired me to go find a copy soon! Before we go for today, is there anything else you would like us to know about Crafterina?

I am working on new illustrations and crafts everyday and hope to spread the importance of creative dreams even further. I hope that my sharing of love for art with others may inspire many more young Crafterinas to follow their hearts and create their own dreams!  

I'd love for people to connect with Crafterina online via our website, our Etsy Shop, Facebook, and Twitter to become a part of our dance and craft community! Also, the Crafterina children's book is available on Amazon.com, Etsy, and iTunes for the iPad. 

Thanks so much for allowing me to interview you, Vanessa. I've loved learning about Crafterina and being inspired to be more creative!

Vanessa Salgado is a professional dancer and visual artist based in New York City. She can be seen performing with CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet and has also taught many little dancers throughout Manhattan, primarily at the School at STEPS on Broadway and at the Joffrey Ballet School. Vanessa is a graduate of the world famous Alvin Ailey/Fordham University BFA Program at Lincoln Center. She also holds a Certification in Dance Education from the Dance Education Laboratory at the NY 92nd St. Y, Harkness Dance Center. Her earliest memories involve story time with her dad, creating with her mom, and attending weekend ballet class alongside her sister, Donna. Her interests in visual art revealed themselves wholeheartedly in high school as she simultaneously trained vigorously for the professional dance world. As she transitioned into her college days and into her professional life, her incessant doodles and crafting have remained a source of wonder for those around her. For more about Vanessa, please visit www.VanessaSalgado.com. 

A Nutcracker Picture Book Countdown!

My two girls and I have tickets to see the Maryland Youth Ballet's version of The Nutcracker this weekend. It's become a bit of a family tradition, and this will be our third year going. We're all very excited!

In anticipation of the weekend, we started reading Nutcracker picture books last night. Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite by Anna Harwell Celenza and Don Tate was the first on our list, and we have three more lined up for the rest of the week. I'm guest posting about all four books today on Dance Advantage (a wonderful online dance resource for dance students, parents, and educators). I hope you'll check it out!

Have you ever been to a performance of The Nutcracker? Do you have a favorite Nutcracker picture book you'd like to share?

Nutcracker Twinkle Toes: Short & Sweet

My just-turned four-year-old and my five-year-old have always loved board books by author/illustrator Karen Katz, and so have I. I haven't asked the girls why they like them so much, but one of the reasons I like them is their simplicity. If I had to sum up the style of the books in just three words, I would probably say something along the lines of "short and sweet."

Karen Katz's new touch-and-feel board book, Nutcracker Twinkle Toes, fits this description perfectly--taking the meaning of "sweet" to a whole new level. In less than 100 words of rhyming text, the book leads readers on a Christmas Eve journey to the Land of Sweets, where they meet an assortment of fairies and other characters who all seem to have two things in common: a love of ballet and a love of candy. Luckily they don't have much interest in actually eating the candy, but instead find creative ways to dance with it, admire it, or simply give it away...

The Sugar Plum Fairy loves to twirl and leap.

"This bag of jellybeans is yours to keep."

Although the Sugar Plum Fairy appears in the book, Clara and the Nutcracker are among many other familiar characters who do not. If you're looking for the traditional story of the Nutcracker, this is probably not the book for you. But if you want a unique and very simplified adaptation--with a creative twist--you will find it here. As a side note, this would be a great book to integrate into a creative dance or ballet class for very young children (if you don't mind that it mentions Christmas and none of the other holidays that happen this time of year.)

While we are on the subject of the Nutcracker, my family and I have tickets to see the actual ballet this evening. The Maryland Youth Ballet is doing a full-length production with children in all the lead roles, so I thought it would be perfect for my girls. This will be their first ballet, and it's been quite a few years since I've seen it myself, so I'm getting really excited. We may even have snow for the festive occasion!

Today's Poetry Friday round-up is being held at The Poem Farm. Drop by to find links to lots more posts related to poetry and children's literature.