Depken, Kristen. Ballet Dreams. Random House, 2013.
Ballet Dreams is written by Kristen L. Depken and illustrated by Ulkutay Design Group. It is a story about a girl who dreams of being a ballet star. It is targeted for beginning readers (grades PS – grade 1). This seems appropriate based on the simple sentence structure and use of sight words geared for that grade level. It is a story traditionally geared towards girls (e.g., girl on a pink cover).
Kristyn is a ballet dancer who dreams of being a star. During her dance, she rips her ballet shoes. Her friend, Hailey, goes with Kristyn to get new ones. When Kristyn puts on her new, shimmery shoes, she and Haily are transported to a magical world of ballet where Kristen is the star. An evil snow queen finds them and is angry that Kristyn and Hailey are in her world. They hide from the snow queen. Kristyn changes to a swan queen, meets a prince, and falls in love. A bad wizard wants the prince to marry his daughter, so he turns Kristyn and Hailey into swans. The wizard tricks the prince by making his daughter look like the swan queen. Kristyn and Haily fly to the palace and break the spell so the prince can see who Kristyn really is. The snow queen becomes angry and takes Hailey to the ice palace. Kristyn goes there and breaks the spell with her dancing. She saves Hailey! Kristyn takes off the shoes and the two girls go home. Kristyn dances her own steps at the big show. The audience loves her. She becomes a ballet star.
About two-thirds of the text in Ballet Dreams are on listed as Dolch sight words. Most of them are leveled as kindergarten (K) or pre-K. The non-sight words are character names or single syllable words (e.g., star). There are a few words with more than one syllable (e.g., follow, sparkle, rushes). The images are helpful, particularly showing the characters’ feelings. For example, Kristyn’s face changes from happy when she’s dancing to sad when she tears her shoe. The snow queen is depicted as angry, but forlorn when she is about to be melted. There are an average of 5-6 words per sentence. Most of the sentences are simple. Long sentences are occasionally interwoven with small ones. For example, three 4 word sentences are followed by a 10 word sentence on one spread.
Ballet Dreams is a fiction “Barbie” book. The cover shows a girl dressed in pink with sparkly shoes and a crown. The first few pages introduce the characters and set the stage. The text describes Kristyn as a dancer wishing to be a ballet star. The image shows her wistfully watching Tara, the ballet star, and her partner dancing. This should draw in a reader who was interested by the cover.
The illustrations provide clues to the story. For example, we see Kristyn’s outfit start to change and magic happening when she first puts on her new shoes and the girls are taken to a magic ballet world. Each spread includes action, mostly on ballet dancing; however, the readers also see the characters shopping, transported to new worlds, falling in love, and battling evil. The main character is developing the confidence to dance on her own. The inclusion of one evil character is somewhat expected; the second one is a bit of a surprise.
Ballet Dreams has 32 pages. The font size is about 20-point. The line length averages 3 words and ranges from 1 to 6 words per line. The font spacing between words and lines is about 20-point. There are generally 3 lines of text per page; it ranges from 2 to 8 lines. Images and text are balanced with white space for the reader’s eyes to rest. The art is realistically drawn and depicts traditional Barbie characters with a Disney feel.
Ballet Dreams is a good read for a child who is interested in dancing or Barbie and would make a good “free choice” reading selection. It is an easy to read story about a ballet dancer fulfilling her dreams of being a star dancer.
Book Notes 