Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Ballet Shoes

by Noel Streatfeild, Diane Goode

In the tradition of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Little Princess come Noel Streatfeild’s tales of triumph. In this story, three orphan girls vow to make a name for themselves and find their own special talents. With hard work, fame just may be in the stars! Originally published in 1937.

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel

by Siena Cherson Siegel

Dancers are young when they first dream of dance. Siena was six -- and her dreams kept skipping and leaping, circling and spinning, from airy runs along a beach near her home in Puerto Rico, to dance class in Boston, to her debut performance on stage with the New York City Ballet. To Dance tells and shows the fullness of her dreams and her rhapsodic life they led to. Part family history, part backstage drama,... (more)

Confessions of a Backup Dancer

by Tucker Shaw

glamour. access. scandal. Ever wonder what your favorite pop divas are like AFTER the cameras stop rolling? What do they do behind closed doors? What are their parties like? What do they think about? What do they fight about? What do they really want? And who do they REALLY hook up with? Kelly Kimball spent a summer as a backup dancer for Darcy Barnes, the biggest pop star in the world. Kelly's got the real story... (more)

Dancing Shoes

by Noel Streatfeild

Aunt Cora is determined to turn two orphans, perky Hilary and sullen Rachel, into members of her dance troupe. But Rachel wants to keep Hilary from being one of Wintle’s Little Wonders–is it selfishness or something else? Misunderstandings and a spoiled cousin combine for a tale full of high drama. Originally published in 1957.

Ballet Shoes

by Noel Streatfeild

Pauline, was rescued from a shipwreck as a baby. She longs to be an actress. Petrova, is a Russian orphan. She is happiest when playing with cars and engines. Polly was handed over with just a pair of ballet shoes to her name. If she could, she would dance all day! But one thing they DO have in common is, that with money running out at home and Great Uncle Matthew missing, the sisters want to stay together.... (more)

Mao's Last Dancer

by Li Cunxin

From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting... (more)

The Return

by Victoria Hislop

Shiva's Fire

by Suzanne Fisher Staples

On a remarkable day when fish leap among the stars, and bird., mar beneath the waters, a girl is born in the South of India. From her childhood, Parvati is known in her village for the extraordinary events that seem to spring from her dancing feet, and which set her and her family apart. One day a great guru, a master of Indian classical dance, comes to see Parvati. He invites her to study with him, and she... (more)

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf

by Ntozake Shange

From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange's words reveal what it is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First... (more)

Dancer

by Colum McCann

Taking his inspiration from biographical facts, novelist Colum McCann tells the erotically charged story of the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev through the cast of those who knew him: there is Anna Vasileva, Rudi's first ballet teacher, who rescues her protégé from the stunted life of his provincial town; Yulia, whose sexual and artistic ambitions are thwarted by her Soviet-sanctioned marriage; and Victor, the... (more)

The Creative Habit

Learn It and Use It for Life

by Twyla Tharp

All it takes to make creativity a part of your life is the willingness to make it a habit. It is the product of preparation and effort, and is within reach of everyone. Whether you are a painter, musician, businessperson, or simply an individual yearning to put your creativity to use, The Creative Habit provides you with thirty-two practical exercises based on the lessons Twyla Tharp has learned in her... (more)

The Circle Opens: Book 1

Magic Steps (The Circle Opens, Book 1)

by Tamora Pierce

Lady Sandrilene fa Toren is a noble girl whose thread magic wove together the power - and the personal bonds - of four young magicians. Now, Lady Sandrilene is on her own and saddled with teaching magic to a restless boy, safeguarding her uncle's health, and tracking down a brutal murderer.

Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You

by Dorian Cirrone

Kayla never really thought of her double Ds as "problem breasts." It made them sound like children who wouldn't behave. Kayla Callaway has prima ballerina grace and something else that most ballerinas don't have: a full figure. Her heart is set on a future in dance. Unfortunately, her proportions just got her cast as an ugly stepsister in Florida Arts High School's production of Cinderella . Kayla's... (more)

Portraits: Dancing Through Fire (Portraits)

Portraits: Dancing Through Fire (Portraits)

by Kathryn Lasky

Welcome to 19th century Paris, and the world of Degas's dancers. 13-year-old Sylvie is one of the pupils at the Paris Opera Ballet, where tutus must always be starched and pointe shoes fresh. Sylvie dreams of being a prima ballerina, but her height is a problem: she is too little. When the Franco-Prussian war begins in 1870, Paris is soon under siege and Sylvie is thrown into turmoil and tragedy. Against the fiery... (more)

My Life

by Isadora Duncan

Unquestionably brave, creative, and erudite, the free spirit Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) captivated the American, European, and Soviet cultural scenes with her innovative modern dance and un-self-conscious lifestyle. My Life , the classic autobiography first published just after Duncan's death, is a frank and engrossing life account of this remarkable visionary and feminist who took on the world,... (more)

Princess of the Midnight Ball

by Jessica Day George

A tale of twelve princesses doomed to dance until dawn… Galen is a young soldier returning from war; Rose is one of twelve princesses condemned to dance each night for the King Under Stone. Together Galen and Rose will search for a way to break the curse that forces the princesses to dance at the midnight balls. All they need is one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles,... (more)

House of Dance

by Beth Kephart

Rosie and her mother coexist in the same house as near strangers. Since Rosie's father abandoned them years ago, her mother has accomplished her own disappearing act, spending more time with her boss than with Rosie. Now faced with losing her grandfather too, Rosie begins to visit him every day, traveling across town to his house, where she helps him place the things that matter most to him "In Trust." As Rosie... (more)

Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson

Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson

by Ian Halperin

In late December 2008, Ian Halperin told the world that Michael Jackson had only six months to live. His investigations into Jackson's failing health made headlines around the globe. Six months later, the King of Pop was dead. Whatever the final autopsy results reveal, it was greed that killed Michael Jackson. Friends and associates paint a tragic picture of the last years and days of his life as Jackson made... (more)

Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography

by Sabrina Jones

Myth and controversy still swirl around the dramatic figure of Isadora Duncan. The pioneering modern dancer emerged from provincial nineteenth-century America to captivate the cultural capitals of Europe, reinvent dance as a fine art, and leave a trail of scandals in her wake. From her unconventional California girlhood to her tragic death on the French Riviera fifty years later, Duncan’s journey was an... (more)

The Pointe Book

by Janice Barringer

This guide provides a thorough examination of the pointe technique and pointe shoes. Dancers tired of their pointe shoes wearing out too quickly benefit from research that illuminates the shoemaking process and tips that show how to best fit, care for, and custom order their shoes. Interviews with ballet stars Martine van Hamel and Darci Kistler reveal their highly evolved but proven methods of caring for pointe... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: dance

by Noel Streatfeild, Diane Goode

by Siena Cherson Siegel

by Tucker Shaw

by Noel Streatfeild

by Noel Streatfeild

by Li Cunxin

by Victoria Hislop

by Suzanne Fisher Staples

by Ntozake Shange

by Colum McCann

Learn It and Use It for Life

by Twyla Tharp

by Tamora Pierce

by Dorian Cirrone

by Kathryn Lasky

by Isadora Duncan

by Jessica Day George

by Beth Kephart

by Ian Halperin

by Sabrina Jones

by Janice Barringer