Miss Lina's Ballerinas

PreS-Gr 1—Miss Lina has eight students in her house in Messina: Christina, Edwina, Sabrina, Justina, Katrina, Bettina, Marina, and Nina. In four lines of two, they dance doing math, while they read, at the park, at the zoo, and at the beach. But with the addition of a new student, Regina, the girls are unable to perform in their familiar formation and chaos ensues. When Miss Lina patiently instructs her ballerinas to arrange themselves in a new configuration, order is restored: "everything's perfect now there are nine,/because dancing in three rows of three is divine…." The delightful colored pencil and pastel illustrations, with an appropriate dose of pink, beautifully complement the simple, rhyming text. The children are full of movement and expression, and the setting has a Parisian feel. Reminiscent of Ludwig Bemelmans's Madeline, this will be a crowd pleaser with aspiring ballerinas and also makes a great introduction to a math lesson on number groupings.—Rachel Kamin, North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, Highland Park, IL