To Dance by Siena Cherson Siegel & Illus by Mark Siegel

This is a lush and elegant look at the world of dance from a teen ballerina's perspective. 

Siena Cherson Siegel was part of the New York City Ballet and her husband is an artist. So together, they created something to charm anyone who dreams of ballet or who loves a well crafted graphic novel. 

Running on the beaches of Puerto Rico where she was born. 

The endpapers at the front. Which come full circle to the endpapers at the end. Which is so nice and symmetrical. 

Siena was a dancing child, loving movement and rhythm. However, doctors said that with her flat feet there was really no point in her taking dance lessons. However, her mum was no dummy and let her take dance classes anyway. 

After seeing a performance of The Swan, Siena was completely captivated. It was all she could talk about, how the ballerina entered so completely into the performance that she was the swan, dying unwillingly. 

With that performance spurring her onward, she dove into ballet with all her energy. 

Her passion and talent began to be noticed. Finally she was offered an audition to train with the New York City Ballet.

Intimidation in the form of Madame Tumkovsky. 

In the rarefied world of ballet, all the important people were Russian. And wore black. 

Ballet took even more of her life now. But there were rewards. Like finally getting her first pair of toe shoes. 

Oh the delight of those toe shoes! 

So much to do and so much to learn. Like how to wear Japanese robes while wandering around backstage. 

Loving ballet as she did, she would stand backstage to watch the dancers even when she wasn't dancing, learning as she watched how to be the principal ballerina. 

Across the stage, also standing in the wings, was Mr. B, George Balanchine, the director of the NYC Ballet. 

Life went on, with a few speed bumps in the form of arguing parents and friendships. 

But always, always ballet.

Being seeped in ballet so much helped her see ballet all around her. Even in football games in Florida with her father. 

But there were times of normalcy, being a teenagers in the 1980's in New York City. 

After an ankle accident at eighteen, her ballet career was chopped short. She had to shift her life focus completely, but eventually she began to dance again, not professionally, but because dancing "...fills a space in me." 

And then the endpapers at the back, as she is dancing across the beaches again with her baby and husband in tow. 

Rise! From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou by Bethany Hegedus & Illus by Tonya Engel

Maya Angelou--this woman was a rockstar! 

This book has colorful and swirling art. 

Maya and her brother going south to live with their grandma. 

Isn't this art amazing? 

Life was mostly good in Stamps, Arkansas. They were cared for and loved by their extended family. They also witnessed the cruelty of racial prejudice endemic in the south in the 1930s.

When their mother settled into a new relationship in Chicago, she sent for the children to visit. 

Of course, that relationship was fraught for Maya. I love how a children's book deals with such a heavy topic (childhood sexual abuse) in such a... well delicate but effective way. There are a lot of kids who feel this sort of fear in their own home and I can only imagine their relief at seeing that same experience reflected in a picture book. 

Still, I hesitate to read this to very young kids. I guess I feel like I need a little more training on how to handle student's comments and questions in a careful way. 

After she was assaulted, one of her uncles allegedly killed her attacker. As a young girl of seven, she felt her words had killed him, so stopped talking to anyone but her brother.  But she still loved words--the rhythm and cadence of words, the beauty and depth of words.

Outside, Maya is quiet. Inside, words make music. Maya memorizes the rhythm, sways to the exquisite dance, the twisting, turning, conga line of language. 

Poetic. 

Maya earned a scholarship to a San Francisco Labor College and studied dance and drama.  

As a young single mother, Maya struggled, but never gave up on her stage talents. Marrying a Greek sailor and aspiring musician at 24, she used a form of his last name for her stage name, Maya Angelou. She toured Europe with Porgy and Bess during the early 1950's. Eventually she went on to release an album of her own compositions and win Tony awards for her acting in multiple works. 

She was passionate about civil rights, working with Martin Luther King Jr, South African activist Vusumzi Make (who she fell in love with and moved to Cairo with), and then meeting and working with Malcolm X in Ghana. 

After MLK Jr.'s murder on her birthday, Maya was devastated, but her friend James Baldwin encouraged her to put that devastation to work and free herself by writing an autobiography. 

In 1970 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published and became an immediate success. 

She went on to win Grammy's for her spoken word albums of poetry, had great commercial success as an author, became the first black women to write a produced screenplay, and became a professor at Wake-Salem University. 

Maya Angelou was an incredible, incredible woman. Massive intellect, charm, From a somewhat troubled beginning (broken family, sexual abuse, young single motherhood, a failed marriage) she went onward and upward, teaching at universities in Ghana and the USA, mastering six languages, and being a life long advocate for civil rights.

In 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for a life of achievement. 

She was a dynamo! 

The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery

This book. This BOOK. Both of my parents loved this book, so it has always been around. And when I read it as a young teen, I fell instantly in love with Valancy and Barney and Barney's cabin in the Ontario wilderness. 

It was one of the first love stories I ever read, so it ended up being a definitive romance. Every story since has been measured up against Valancy and Bernard. I know, I know. NOT romantic names. But they can't be blamed for what their parents called them. 

(Also, wild roses. I took these pictures last June, but never got it posted. Oh for wild rose days! They will be here soon, I guess. But this part of winter always seems to drag....)

Valancy is a sheltered spinster of 29, Bernard the local suspicious person who doesn't care what anyone else thinks. Not caring about what other people thinks in rural Ontario in the early 1900s was a pretty dire statement on someone's character. Clearly a person to steer clear of.  

After Valancy goes to the doctor for a chest pain and finds she has a terminal condition, she flouts her family's expectation and goes to care for a local, unwed mother. While there, she meets Bernard who comes to visit the lonely girl. Bernard is interesting in a way her family never was. Eventually, with a return to her family's home in the offing, Valancy goes to Bernard and proposes to him. She tells him of her terminal condition, which means he would not have to be married for ever. She argues they get along well and she could take care of his house, so why not? Why not indeed?

Much to her family's consternation, Valancy goes junketing off as Bernard's new wife. 

And of course, in the misty, purple evenings on a tiny island in a lake in Ontario, Bernard and Valancy become the best of friends and slowly begin to realize they are in love.

A little melodramatic, but oh! Going against society, finding a kindred spirit, a private island no matter how tiny, and a dramatic ending---how could I not love this book? 

There are times in this book that Lucy Maud talks a little too much. Some of the family chatter at the beginning seems a bit excessive. But it is entirely worthwhile to overlook these minor flaws. 

If you haven't already read this, give yourself a treat and do so. If you have already read it, give yourself another treat and read it over. I think I have read it about ten times.  

Nancy and Plum by Betty MacDonald & Illus by Mary Grandpre

My youngest two kids have a severe Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle addiction. We have listened to all four books about 879 times. Give or take. So I felt they needed to hear another book by the same author. 

This book? Pure delight. 

Two sisters (one shy and quiet-ish, one daring and unruly), boarding school, rich and clueless uncle, domineering/mean/unfair/horrid headmistriss named Mrs. Monday, a kindly gardener, an inspiring teacher AND librarian, a daring escape, and a kind farm couple to take them in. 

What more could you POSSIBLY want? 

Nothing, unless you are greedy. In which case, you may want illustrations by Harry Potter illustrator Mary Grandpre. 

The illustrations are sparing, but delightful.

I read this to my kids on a snowday a few weeks ago and my sister stopped in for tea and knitting. So she cozied right in with us, listening and enjoying it with us. Isn't that a perfect kind of day? 

It starts on Christmas Eve, but follows Nancy and her sister Pamela (nicknamed Plum) throughout an entire year, ending on the following Christmas Eve. So it is a book to be enjoyed any old time of the year. 

Perfect for 8-12 year olds! And grown adults who happen to love this kind of story. 

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston & Barbara Cooney

I love this book. More than a Christmas book, this is a book about sacrifices families make for the military and about good old fashioned pluckiness. 

And strength. I love how strong this momma is. 

Ruthie's house in the valley of Pine Grove. Coming on to Christmas. 

Earlier that year, her father told Ruthie it was their turn to provide a Christmas tree for the town, as each family did. He and Ruthie set out to find just the right one. 

The one they found was out on a craggy rock. They tied Ruthie's hair ribbon to the top of the tree so they would remember which tree it was when the mountains were all changed by winter and snow. 

Unfortunately, her Daddy was called up to fight in the first World War not long after that. Ruthie and Momma kept things going. 

The war was finished that November, but Ruthie's daddy wasn't on the train of returning soldiers. 

They didn't know when he would return. 

The day before Christmas Eve, the minister comes to say they will just get a tree from someone else, since they know Ruthie's father is still away. Ruthie's momma won't allow the family honor to be tarnished in that way, so she politely declines the easy way out and heads out into the moonlight with Ruthie and Old Piedy the horse to find the chosen tree. 

After a lot of walking, they finally see the tree. Away up over there. 

I may have laid down right there and died. But not these hardy women. 

They get things done. 

As the sun is rising, they drop the tree off at the church and head home. For a reason I don't really understand, the mother doesn't claim the tree. The minister comes to say it is a miracle--in the land of cedars and pines, a balsam tree was left outside the church last night. And Ruthie's momma says Imagine that! 

But whether everyone else knew or not, Ruthie and her momma would know they had done her Daddy proud. 

Ruthie goes to sleep. Her mother stays awake all day sewing Ruthie the perfect angel costume. Because whatever family gives the Christmas tree gets to have the angel part. 

Isn't this cozy? It actually was probably freezing cold. But I like the quilt.

Ruthie's tired mother sews an amazing dress. One that looks suspiciously like her wedding dress. 

The tiny angel on the top of the tree was made to exactly match Ruthie in a dress that was suspiciously similar to the silk stockings Ruthie's Daddy sent home for her Momma. 

Old Saint Nick gives her the beautiful doll. 

And that is when her Daddy comes home. 

I feel like this part is somewhat anti-climatical. It could have been so much bigger. But maybe it is just meant to be Momma and Ruthie's story. After all, they were tough enough to keep things going.