Ballet

Charlotte has never even seen ballet but lately she's been talking non-stop about it.  So today we dug out an old leotard and some ballet books that were Madeleine's.  In the kitchen, using chairs as a barre we practiced plies.  We followed the pictures in the book showing feet and hand positions.  Charlotte had me hold her leg up like the couple on one of the pages.  I think it might be time to sign up for a dance class!

My Ballet Book

Kate Castle 1998

This book covers everything about ballet- the positions, the performance, stage design, costumes, makeup, backstage, dance stars, the history of ballet, the music, etc...

 

Then we read through the stories of some of the most famous ballets:  Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Coppelia, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.  There are all sorts of tidbits about costumes and sets and ballet traditions.  The book opens with an introduction by the ballerina Darcy Bussell.

DK Read & Listen: Illustrated Book of Ballet Stories (DK Read & Listen)

Barbara Newman 1997

illustrated by Gill Tomblin

A Summertime Song

We recently had a birthday in our house.  Complete with colorful hanging lanterns, vintage tablecloths, pennant banners and of course punch in the big round punch bowl with little cups.  I even made a striped play canopy to hang from one of the backyard trees.  Turning 3 years old never was so much fun!

A Summertime Song

Irene Haas 1997

The next day, after tea with leftover birthday cake, we read about this summertime party with a baby bird, madam mouse, inchworm and a lost doll. Ssshhh, don't tell, it was a surprise party for Mr. Owl! I don't love it as much as The Maggie B, also by Irene Haas, but it has nice oversize illustrations and a sweet heroine.
 

The Little Lame Prince and His Traveling Cloak

The Little Lame Prince & Other Stories

Dinah Mulock 1964

There are so many amazing older books written for children.  I suppose many people get turned off by the antique language or outdated social characters.  That's too bad because these vintage books often have tremendous moral lessons and beautiful writing.  This story was originally published in 1875.

Our copy has this wonderful inscription on the first page:

As a baby Prince Dolor was dropped on his christening day, resulting in him being lame for the rest of his life. He is sent to live out his days in a tall tower with an uncaring nurse. Luckily he has a magical fairy godmother who gives him a special cloak- a traveling cloak that lets him fly around even though he cannot walk.

Outside it was the commonest-looking bundle imaginable- shabby and small; and the instant Prince Dolor touched it, it grew smaller still, dwindling down till he could put it in his trousers' pocket, like a handkerchief rolled up into a ball.

He is curious about the world and as he wishes to see and experience things, his cloak makes it happen. His godmother also gives him a pair of magical glasses and ears to enhance his sight and hearing.

Just a bunch of green leaves- such as we see in myriads, watching them bud, grow, fall, and then kicking them along on the ground as if they were worth nothing. Yet, how wonderful they are- every one of them a little different. I don't suppose you could ever find two leaves exactly alike in form, color, and size- no more than you could find two faces alike, or two characters exactly the same. The plan of this world is infinite similarity and yet infinite variety.

It's really a remarkable story about how he grows up, faces his disability, gets his kingdom back and becomes a great king.

He had never seen any real live boys, but he had seen pictures of them, running and jumping, which he had admired and tried hard to imitate, but always failed. Now he began to understand why he failed and that he always should fail- that, in fact, he was not like other little boys, and it was of no use his wishing to do as they did and play as they played, even if he had had them to play with. His was a separate life, in which he must find out new work and new pleasures for himself.

 His godmother tells him: "You will never be able to walk, or run, or jump, or play- that your life will be quite different from most people's lives; but it may be a very happy life for all that. Do not be afraid."

 The sense of the inevitable, as grown-up people call it- that we cannot have things as we want them to be, but as they are, and that we must learn to bear them and make the best of them- this lesson which everybody has to learn soon or late came, alas sadly soon to the poor boy.

 This line I thought was startlingly perceptive and wise (and a gem to find in a children's story):

Then he fancied the cloak began to rock gently to and fro, with a soothing kind of motion, as if he were in somebody's arms- somebody who did not speak, but loved him and comforted him without need of words; not by deceiving him with false encouragement or hope, but by making him see the plain, hard truth in all its hardness, and thus letting him quietly face it till it grew softened down and did not seem nearly so dreadful after all.

We have several copies of this book.  One from 1928 and with more classical illustrations.

And also a large hardback from 1948 that includes "The Adventures of a Brownie" also by Miss Mulock.

Jennifer's Rabbit

Jennifer's Rabbit

Tom Paxton

illustrated by Elizabeth Miles 2001

Madeleine first brought this home from her elementary school library and I fell in love.  I had never heard the song before but I couldn't help but read it with a sing-song voice.   The illustrations are pretty wonderful too.  This has become a popular bedtime read in our house.  I'd like to think the kids fall asleep with dreams of sailing on a starlight sea and dancing on the decks of a red-sailed brig.

Jennifer slept in her little bed

With dreams of her rabbit in her little head.
Jennifer's rabbit, brown and white,

Left the house and ran away one night

Before I Was Your Mother

Before I Was Your Mother

Kathryn Lasky 2007

illustrated by LeUyen Pham

A decidedly less tear-inducing book about motherhood than my last post! This is still a cute nostalgic look at the past though, as a mother tells her daughter about how she was once a little girl too. The perspective is great.  The daughter sees her mother only as a harried, bill-paying, responsible mom.  But her mother tells her how she was once a girl who loved ballet tutus and red cowboy boots and making all sorts of noise and fun with her best friend.

Someday

     You know a book is a keeper when you start to get choked up while just reading it in the isle of the store! I had recently had Charlotte and was in the unique position of experiencing a new baby while my oldest daughter, Madeleine, was on the cusp of womanhood. Holding Charlotte, I remembered baby Madeleine and knew what it felt like to blink and have your child be nearly grown.
 

Someday

Alison McGhee 2007

pictures by Peter Reynolds

     This book, so simply written and illustrated, captures that mother-feeling of loving a child, watching them grow, the dreams you have for them, and the passage of time. 

When I found this book I had to buy several copies to send to friends and (of course!) my mom. I think it's interesting that each of us is affected by a different part or line of the story. For me having daughters it was particularly poignant knowing (or hoping) that my own girls will someday become mothers themselves.  So this page was the one that did me in:

Someday I will watch you brushing your child's hair.

Someday, a long time from now, your own hair will glow silver in the sun.  And when that day comes, love, you will remember me.

When my grandmom was in a nursing home at the close of her life (nearly 80 years old), she would talk about her own mother.  Here she had been a wife, had her own children, raised a family, endured trials, had strength and at this time, old and grey haired, it was her mother that she thought of.