I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina [Hardcover]

Anna Pavlova (Author), Edgar Degas (Illustrator)

Book Description

Every girl remembers her first trip to the ballet: the anticipation beforehand, the orchestra's first notes, the ethereal beauty of the ballerinas. This is a tale of one such girl who was caught up in ballet's mesmerizing spell and became one of the greatest ballerinas of all time.

In a story drawn from her memoirs, Anna Pavlova describes her first visit to the ballet to see the Sleeping Beauty. With simple, childlike language, she captures her love for her mother, the splendor of the ballet, and the moments that changed her life. The words are matched with paintings, pastels, and drawings of the French Impressionist Edgar Degas, to give this story all the magic of a fairytale.

Complete with short biographies of Pavlova and Degas, I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina will delight any child with ballerina dreams.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A young girl's discovery of ballet is combined with the magic of French Impressionist Edgar Degas's paintings to create a story as delicate and lovely as the ballerina herself. Drawn from the 1922 autobiography of prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, this reminiscence tells of her first trip to the ballet to see Sleeping Beauty with her mother. Her youthful words reflect the sweet wonder of the experience, as well as the gentle love between mother and child. The moment the breathless Pavlova voices her desire to dance on the stage one day, followed by her mother's response that she is "her silly little dear," is made all the more poignant by the reader's knowledge that this particular little girl's dream did come true.

Filled with the enchanting details of the ballet, and perfectly accompanied by the famous ballerina paintings of Degas, this is a book to be treasured by dancers, art lovers, and devotees of ballet alike. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

The magic of royalty and ballet combine against an Edgar Degas backdrop for Anna Pavlova's I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina. Using simple language, the Russian dancer vividly describes the pleasure, awe and inspiration drawn from Sleeping Beauty, her first glimpse of the ballet.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; First Edition edition (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689846762
• ISBN-13: 978-0689846762
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,825 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #87 in Books > Children's Books > Biographies > Performing Arts

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Beginning of a Dream....., November 29, 2001

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina (Hardcover)

Taken from her 1922 memoirs, Pages Of My Life, dancer Anna Pavlova tells of her first experience at the ballet as a little girl. Her simple and gentle words are full of imagery and passion as she relates the wonder of watching the Sleeping Beauty ballet...the sounds of Tchaikovsky's music, the mesmerizing beauty of the dancers, and the roar of the audience. On that thrilling afternoon her love affair with dance began, and a dream commenced that set the course of her life. Ms Pavlova's lovely text is enhanced by the magic and wonder of Edgar Degas' paintings. His artwork transports the reader back to this long ago performance, and together words and art bring that day to life. Perfect for youngsters 4-8, I Dreamed I Was A Ballerina includes short biographies of both Pavlova and Degas, to complete the story, and is a masterpiece to be treasured by aspiring ballerinas and artists, everywhere.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Moving, January 9, 2007

By 

L. Stubbs (Corvallis, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina (Hardcover)

Yes, this is a beautiful, moving story of a girl's dream come true. I bought it for my 6 year-old grandaughter who loves her ballet lessons. I hope the book will encourage her to pursue her own dreams, whatever they may be. This is an example of a classic in children's literature. It can be read again and again and has life lessons for the young and the old.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Book, December 2, 2008

By 

Loving Retirement (Southern California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina (Hardcover)

I began taking my grandaughter to the ballet when she was 3 years old. By 5, she knew the stories and music to all the classics and began ballet lessons at the Washington Ballet. Now, at 7, during the holiday, she is dancing one of the leading children's roles in Septime Webre's Nutcracker.

I bought this book because I wanted to introduce her to the history of this beautiful art. Not only did she love the story, but, additionally, she was facinated by the Degas images and drawings. We ended up spending more time learning about "Impressionism" than Anna Pavlova. She loved the softness of the images and plied me with questions about the way Degas painted.

Because of that discussion, I bought her an additional book about "The Little Ballerina" statue that Degas fashioned. That led to my descriptions of The Louvre, the copy of the statue in The Metropolitan Museum and a promise that this summer, for her 8th birthday, I would take her to New York to see Swan Lake danced by the American Ballet Theater and the Metropolitan Museum to see the copy of "The Little Ballerina" statue by Degas.

I could never have imagined that this book would be so stimulating. The best part was sharing the story, answering her multiple questions, watching her enthusiasm while I read the story (even though she could have read it herself)and knowing that a child's curiousity was joyously working overtime.