First sentence: This is Bess. Bess wants to dance. Bess wants to be a ballerina.
Premise/plot: Young readers meet Bess who wants to be a ballerina. Ballerina Bess is from the Early-Start Preschool Reader series. It has a 25 word vocabulary.
My thoughts: I had this one and Ann Likes Red growing up. While I think I prefer Ann Likes Red a little better, this one is still a lot of fun if you like vintage children's books. (It was published in 1965.)
Simple can be a great thing when you are learning to read. Words need to be either sight words (common frequency like is, was, the, this, etc.), or easy to sound out. To read a whole book on your own can be a great confidence booster.
One thing that I just noticed now as an adult is that there are a few pages where LEGS are missing. On one page readers clearly see Bess dancing ON HER TOES. And on the very next page, Bess is missing BOTH LEGS as she's shopping at a store. The sales clerk has legs, but Bess and her mother DO NOT. And on the next page. Bess, her mom, and the sales clerk are all missing legs. But fortunately Bess' legs return for the next page when she's dancing once more.
Text: 4 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 7 out of 10
© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
2 comments:
Oh my goodness I'd forgotten about this book! Seeing the cover brought it all back and put a smile on my face. I had this as a little girl and it made me very keen to have ballet lessons.
This was my favorite book. I think it was the first book I actually read by myself. I could never find it again when I had wanted to gift it to my nieces when they were learning to read. My dad found it and had the author sign it for me as a Christmas gift when I was in my 40's. I cried like a baby.
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