A Dance Like Starlight

Gr 1–3—The young narrator searches the sky for a wishing star to make her dreams of becoming a dancer come true. She wonders, "Could a colored girl like me ever become a prima ballerina?" She grows up at the ballet—watching rehearsals and fittings, admiring and donning costumes, and copying dance steps in the wings—as her mama cleans and stitches at a dance school in Harlem. One day, the ballet master sees the child dance and invites her to join the class, despite the fact that she cannot perform on stage with his white students. When her mother learns that Janet Collins, the first "colored" prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera, is performing, she buys tickets, "even though it'll cost her half of what she's put back for a new sewing machine." The magical night fuels the girl's hope, and her hardworking mama recognizes her talent and drive. This largely iconographic version of the book by Kristy Dempsey, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Philomel, 2014), features some modest animation, such as laundry blowing in the wind and the little girl dancing. The camera zooms in for close-ups of Cooper's beautiful, muted mixed-media illustrations, revealing the streetscapes and fashions of the 1950s. Gentle background music and the young voice and inflection of narrator Bahni Turpin capture the heartwarming message that anything is possible with hard work and determination.