Blog Entry #6 Dream Dancer

Dream Dancer

Written by Jill Newsome
Illustrated by Claudio Munoz
Harper Collins
2001
30 pages

Realistic Fiction

            I chose this book because it was on display at the library. The front cover depicted a beautiful young girl dancing through the park, and I was drawn in by the exuberant use of color. This story is about a little girl who loved to dance. She danced everywhere. She danced until one day she had a bad fall and injured her leg. She could no longer dance and felt like she was trapped in a cage. Her grandmother noticed that every time they passed a store window on their walk Lily would stare at a dancing figurine. One day Lily’s grandmother bought her the doll, and the doll danced when and where Lily couldn’t. Eventually, Lily became able to dance again, but she was frightened that she had forgotten how. Luckily, her doll comforted her and gave her confidence to dance again. 

            The illustrations in this book look to be watercolor. Each scene is detailed to where the pictures tell a story all on their own. The use of long, swift brush strokes and horizontal lines on the page force the eye to dance across the pictures. When Lily was sad, she was in the background of the pictures, and the watercolor had a faded quality to it. As she began to dance again, the color became more concentrated and vibrant, just like Lily did in the story. 

            This book is appropriate for a wide range of ages. It could be used as a character education story of perseverance and commitment to dreams, and it could also be used as a jumping off tool for share-time in younger grades. The teacher could read this book and then have students write about and share a special talent they have or a time when they weren’t able to do something they desperately wanted to do. 

You can check out other dancing books and songs that go with them by clicking on the word dancing.