The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty: Create Your Own Ballet by Viola Ann Seddon (illustrator) and Jean Mahoney (author). Copy supplied by publisher, Candlewick.

It's About:

Creating your own ballet for Sleeping Beauty.

The Good:

I was not a ballet kid. I was, however, a miniatures kid. Had a dollhouse. Had a book from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that recreated four rooms from the museum, complete with furniture. Loved it.

So I eagerly opened up the box for Create Your Own Ballet, with its promises on the box: Changeable Scenery and Backdrops, Twirling Dancers, Full Story and Stage Directions, and Audio CD.

The box opens as a theatre would: open the doors, open the curtains, and there is the stage. On the bottom of the box is a compartment; open it, and there are the dancers (beautiful dancers, with a stick to manipulate the dancer.) And the backdrops. Along with the book. (Follow the publisher links for images).

The book is not just the stage directions to create your own play-it also includes a CD for music cues to move from scene to scene. There are additional details and information, such as the history of Tchaikovsky's ballet, information about staging the ballet with real people.

A great gift for little ballerinas. Or kids who like dollhouses and miniatures. Or future directors, who will be inspired by the mini stage.

Dragonology: Field Guide to Dragons

Dragonology: Field Guide to Dragons by Dr. Ernest Drake. By Dugald A. Steer. Candlewick. Copy supplied by publisher.

It's About: Dragons!

The Good: The latest ology book revisits Dragons.

The design of the book has a "serious" feel; open the cover, and you find a spiral bound book, the Field Guide, along with twelve envelopes. Open an envelope (they only look like they are closed with sealing wax), and there are the pieces to one of the featured dragons.

I, of course, tried to put it together without looking at the instructions. Hint: the instructions help.

Being as this is a "field guide," there is a page dedicated to each dragon (and pseudo-dragons, like the Phoenix). My favorite? The Marsupial Dragon (drago marsupialis), who lays eggs "which it incubates in a pouch on its front." Food includes koalas and wombats. Habitat: do you have to ask?

As a field guide, it also includes lists of necessary equipment, such as heat-protective clothing.

I love the "pretend its real" aspect of these books; that it invites you to be part of the fantasy, not just an observer.

I also like how, like any reference book, this can be read however the reader wants to read it. Straight thru? That works. Skip ahead to your favorite dragons? Good idea. Examine the detailed drawings? Sweet.