Synopses & Reviews
Little Ella Bella loves attending Madame Rosa's ballet class at the old theater. Most of all she loves the music that plays from Madame Rosa's special music box, the theme from The Sleeping Beauty ballet. One day, after ballet class has ended, Ella Bella is left alone with the music box on the theater stage. As its music begins playing, Ella is transported to the magical world where the Sleeping Beauty's story takes place. Entering the palace of Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty, Ella meets all the story's characters--not only the good ones, but also the sinister bad fairy--and she sees the famous story unfold before her very eyes. Here is an unusually imaginative retelling of the classic fairy tale, with illustrations that capture the story's magic and mystery. A brief postscript on the book's final page summarizes the history of ballet from its origins during the Italian Renaissance to the late nineteenth-century, when the famous Russian composer Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky wrote music for The Sleeping Beauty ballet.
Synopsis
(back cover)
Ella Bella loves attending Madame Rosa's ballet class at the old theater. . .
Alone on the stage after class, Ella Bella lifts the lid of a magical music box. As the music plays, the Lilac Fairy appears and whisks Ella off into the enchanted world of The Sleeping Beauty. Will she be able to help save Princess Aurora from the bad fairy's spell?
Young readers will enjoy discovering the world of a famous ballet through the charming Ella Bella Ballerina -- created by the popular children's author and illustrator James Mayhew.
Synopsis
Ella Bella loves attending Madame Rosa's ballet class at the old theater. Alone on the stage after class, Ella Bella lifts the lid of a magical music box. As the music plays, the Lilac Fairy appears and whisks Ella off into the enchanted world of Tchaikovsky's "The Sleeping Beauty." Young readers will enjoy discovering the world of a famous ballet through this charming story.
About the Author
James Mayhew was born in Blundeston, a tiny village in Suffolk, England. Today he lives with his wife and son in Letchworth Garden City, England. The author and illustrator of many popular children's books, James Mayhew claims that he began writing so that he would have something to illustrate. Ella Bella Ballerina and The Sleeping Beauty is his first book published by Barron's.