Spectacular. This would pair well with Ballet for Martha, the Raschka biography of Thelonious Monk, or The One and Only Ivan.

Format: 32 pages plus one foldout. 1025 words plus 900 words in author's notes. POV: third person, past.

In 1942, 50 elephants dressed in thousands of yards of tulle and silk danced steps choreographed by George Balanchine to music by Igor Stravinsky in the John Ringling North circus. The performance, and the 425 performances that followed delighted over 4 million viewers. Schubert's book begins with the pomp surrounding the appearance of the circus in a town, then flashes back to when each of the principle humans were young and how they came together to follow and create a dream into reality. The language is appropriate for the age group, but the flashback sequence in the middle tends to bog the overall story down, creating a split in the narrative that doesn't easily come together in the end. The endnotes are full of history and links to further reading.

This book gives the back story to a ballet, the Circus Polka performed by elephants in 1942. This came about through the collaboration of John Ringling, George Balanchine, and Igor Stravinsky. The illustrations are all drawings, but there is a picture from the the ballet and the elephants included in the book.

3.5 stars. This was about one of the Ringling's bringing 50 some elephants together in a circus and training them to perform together. He solicited help from Igor Stravinsky (a composer) and a famous choreographer (also from Russia) to create the show. Interesting to learn about the people of the circus and to see how much the elephants loved the people. This one was a little over Natalie's head, even though she claims she loved it. ;)

The story of how "Circus polka" a dance of 50 elephants and 50 ballerinas, choreographed by George Balanchine, was created.

www.hcpl.net

Without background knowledge about Depression era circuses, I do not think children would connect much with this book. I think kids would like to know more about the elephants in the ballet and less about the humans.

I am convinced that the only way this book won the Texas Bluebonnet Award is because it was so short, it was read to every child in the state whose school participates in the contest.

I am now suspicious of books where the author's note explaining "the process" is longer than the text of the book itself.

I absolutely love one-of-a-kind childrens' books about something that very few adults are aware occurred. This book fits that bill to a T! I would recommend this to nonfiction lovers and budding ballerinas. Beauty and grace can be found in the most unusual places, art takes many shapes, and crazy artists get ideas in their head and won't give them up no matter how unusual or impossible they may seem to outsiders!

Step up nonfiction

Winner of the 2007-2008 Texas Bluebonnet Award, this book filled with watercolor pictures of the true story of the Ballet of Elephants was captivating. When Igor Stravinsky (composer of The Nutcracker) was asked by George Balanchine (Russian Choreographer) to compose a piece of music for John Ringling North's circus elephants to perform to, Stravinsky gladly jumped at the opportunity. My 6 year old listened to the story fascinated by the idea of elephants performing ballet, and was even more enthralled at the end when she realized this had been a TRUE story. Great book for introducing Stravinsky as a composer.

Who knew that this existed... I love learning about interesting events in history.

Incredible biography which tells how lives of several different people: circus master, John Ringling North, ballet-master George Balanchine, and composer Igor Stravinsky crossed paths. Wonderful illustrations.
This book has incredible sentences--complex, yet they flow great and read aloud well.
This is a must read PB.

The story of a circus show of fifty elephants in pink tutus and fifty ballerina's, also in pink tutus that toured 104 cities, in the 1940's.

Fun. You could tell how much the author loved this piece of history.