REVIEWS+

Angelina Ballerina

Ballet Dreams
NOT- -AVAIL-ABL-E.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 2—Young ballet fans will enjoy watching Angelina dance through these six short animated episodes. "Angelina's New Home" takes place on the morning after her family moves, when Angelina stubbornly wants to spend Saturday like she would in her old neighborhood, but discovers some nice things about her new home. The next episode introduces "Angelina's New Ballet Teacher," whose style, to Angelina's chagrin, is not classical like her former instructor. In "Angelina En Pointe," Angelina wants to audition for the Mousekinov Ballet and tries dancing en pointe with painful consequences. Next, Angelina decides she will be a great teacher like her beloved Miss Lily, but she quickly loses patience when she tries to teach her little sister in "Angelina's Ballet School." In "Angelina and the New Music Store," the family opens a music store and their planned musical celebration has to be toned down to accommodate the needs of a neighbor. The computer generated settings are lush and colorful. Angelina's dance moves are performed so well that they could have been executed by a live ballerina. Children will relate to some of the themes: moving, attending a new school, adjusting to the style of a new teacher, and dealing with a younger sibling. While Angelina the diva can be selfish and overly dramatic, she learns her lessons in the end. Episodes are punctuated with Angelina's frequent daydreams which include songs and, of course, dances.—Constance Dickerson, Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, OH
In this beautiful, heartrending, yet horrifying film, North Koreans tell their stories of imprisonment, sexual slavery, torture, murder, and escape to China or South Korea during the nearly 50-year regime of Kim Il Sung (1912—94). The interviews are illustrated through the interspersion of dance sequences, archival news footage, and drawings. Particularly interesting are the North Korean propaganda films celebrating Kim Il Sung as God and showing in the face of mass starvation happy workers, elaborate military displays, and the creation of a new flower in 1988 in honor of the 46th birthday of Kim's son and successor, Kim Jong Il. A valuable time line traces 20th-century events in Korea. Bonus features include previously unreleased footage of camp refugees. This mesmerizing film displays excellent production values and is highly recommended for Asia collections.—Kitty Chen Dean, formerly with Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, NY
Reviewed by Kitty Chen Dean , Jul 01, 2011

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