The Goddess of Ugly

Written by: Deborah Nourse Lattimore

First line: Once, not very long ago there were twin sisters, Kiri and Mareweia.

Why you should read this book: Two little Maori girls look forward to their coming of age, when they will receive their chin tattoos, but first they must perfect their haka dance. However, one of the sisters cannot take her practice seriously, and their grandmother warns them that making ugly faces will leave them vulnerable to Punga, the Goddess of Ugly, who once trapped Mudfish and Lizard in a lodgepole, to teach them a lesson about being ugly on purpose. Still not taking the warning seriously, the girls, naturally, have a terrifying run-in with Punga, where they quickly learn their lesson and get the best of the situation.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're very shallow. 

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel

Written by: Siena Cherson Siegel and Mark Siegel

First line: Big, empty spaces always made me dance.

Why you should read this book: An always honest, sometimes sad, but mostly joyful recollection of a girl who loved dancing, devoted her childhood to ballet with a surprising intensity, and eventually, like most child dancers, was forced to apply herself to another profession in adulthood. Siena's family moves to New York so she can study at a prestigious school, perform regularly, and even enjoy occasionally crossing paths with the great Mikhail Baryshnikov, and while she is physically limited from pursuing a career in dance as an adult, she eventually realizes that dancing at any level makes her happy. A great resource to help very young girls understand the degree of hard work, physical pain, and potential injury that goes hand in hand with dancing at a professional level, along with the delight. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: While it's very honest about the potential for injury when dancing on pointe, it slightly glosses over the psychological damage—body image issues and eating disorders—that seems endemic to ballet in books for older readers.

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids

Edited by: Cynthia Leitich Smith 

First line: A powwow is/friends and family/gathered together to honor the Creator,/Kinnekasus, Man-Never-Known-on-Earth,/who watches over us. 

Why you should read this book: It's a collection of short stories for young readers, clustered around the experience of children attending the big powwow in Ann Arbor, Michigan, written by a variety of authors from different tribes and traditions (with a glossary at the end, since the book contains snippets of many languages). Although the characters have diverse backgrounds and personalities (including those who don't have powwow or dance in their culture historically), patterns soon emerge: a fear of or reluctance to dance being replaced by joy in dancing, feelings around beautiful regalia, the experience of eating frybread, the experience of working in the family business selling food or crafts, the gulf between young people and their elders made small through love and communication, the embracing of identity in surprising new ways, the absence of missing loved ones and the joys of reunification, and the presence of a dog wearing a funny T-shirt. While these are certainly stories for kids, they also tackle bigger issues like death and mourning, cultural appropriation, and making retribution for mistakes. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: These are mostly what I call "quiet" stories; they tend to be less about plot and action and more about the protagonist's thoughts and feelings. 

Auggie and Me: Three Wonder Stories

Written by: RJ Palacio

First line: Okay, okay, okay.

Why you should read this book: A companion to the popular novel Wonder, this books tells the parallel stories of Julian, Christopher, and Charlotte, three kids whose lives were impacted by Auggie's. We learn that Auggie's bully, Julian, suffers from nightmares, and that his response to Auggie is born of shame and fear; Christopher learns the importance of sticking by friends through his own relationship with Auggie; and Charlotte learns to see the world and the idea of popularity through a new lens.Written with wisdom and compassion, Palacio's stories show kids' real inner worlds.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Although these stories all stand alone, it probably makes more sense to read the first book first. 

Ellen Tebbits

Written by: Beverly Cleary

First line: Ellen Tebbits was in a hurry.

Why you should read this book: It's a quiet and sort of old-fashioned story about a girl with a terribly old-fashioned secret: in the winter, Ellen's neat and tidy mother forces her to wear long, high-necked, woolen underwear. Ellen assumes she's the only girl in the world trying to do ballet with a union suit under her dance costumes, but, in trying to hide her own secret, she learns that the new girl, Austine, shares the same terrible problem! Austine's friendship changes Ellen's life, until a bad reaction to a misunderstanding drives a terrible wedge between the two girls, leaving Ellen lonelier than ever, until she can figure out a way to make it up to her former best friend.

Why you should read this book: I'm not sure any kids today would have any idea what Ellen is talking about when she describes her winter underwear.

Zombelina Dances the Nutcracker

Written by: Kristyn Crow and Molly Idle

First line: It's me, Zombelina, a tryouts today...in the old opera house with my CORPSE de ballet.

Why you should read this book: Light-hearted and a little bit silly, this beautifully illustrated book is written in heroic couplets and tells the story of a little zombie girl who wants to play Clara in the Nutcracker, but also wants her best friend to be happy, and also has to keep the ghost of her grandfather from electrocuting the cast on opening night, because that is a hilarious prank. Little kids seemed to enjoy the story but also to not understand parts of it, having no grounding in ballet or electricity. The also wanted to know how there could be a story that was both Halloween and Christmas and I asked them if they hadn't seen The Nightmare before Christmas, assuming their parents were all heathens, but then they said they had seen it, so that part started to make sense to them anyway.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't think Halloween and Christmas go together.

The Walls around Us

Written by: Nova Ren Suma

First line: We went wild that hot night.

Why you should read this book: This dark and cunning ghost story weaves a tangled thicket of murder and revenge, twisted through time and sprouting from the fertile soil of the Aurora Hills Juvenile Detention Center in upstate New York, almost all the way to the Canadian border. Told in dual point of view, the story splits between the quiet and detailed observations of Amber, a girl long locked up in the facility for the murder of her abusive stepfather, and Violet, a talented ballerina with her sights set on Julliard, with nothing in her way except for the memory of her one-time best friend, Ori, who was sentenced to Aurora Hills for murdering two girls behind the dance studio. In the place where their worlds collide, both girls will find justice, although perhaps not in the way they hoped to find it.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You've forgotten your own crimes.

The Rainbow Tulip

Written by: Pat Mora and Elizabeth Sayles

First line: Every morning my mother gives me a huge spoonful of thick, yellow, cod liver oil.

Why you should read this book: Stella feels different from the other children, because her mother doesn't speak English or dress like the other mothers. When she learns that all the girls in her class get to dress as tulips for their May Day dance, she chooses to set herself apart further by dressing as a rainbow-colored tulip. While noticing her differences, she finds that she can also embrace and enjoy them.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You work tirelessly to fit in.

My Friend Maya Loves to Dance

Written by: Cheryl Willis Hudson and Eric Velasquez

First line: My friend Maya loves to dance.

Why you should read this book: This book highlights some various types of dancing enjoyed by little girls, and shows their delight in the music and the movement. However, it seems to have a more urgent mission: first to showcase a company of black ballerinas, and second to show that the narrator, Maya's non-dancing friend, can enjoy her friend's freedom of movement despite being, herself, confined to a wheelchair. A sweet little read, particularly for young dancers.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You desperately wish you could walk.

Rainy's Powwow

Written by: Linda Theresa Raczek

First line: The Thunderbird Powwow was about to begin.

Why you should read this book: This story offers a picture of a beautiful cultural practice while simultaneously telling a universally accessible story about a little girl unsure about how she fits in to her culture at large. Rainy and her brother are watching the dancers, and Rainy is acutely aware that her little brother is so young that he can dance however he wants, and their friend Grandmother White Hair's dancing days are past, but that she, Rainy, is old enough to choose a dance. Lacking relatives who could help her learn her dance and induct her into society, she talks to the other dancers and then seeks solace in the woods before finally figuring out where she belongs.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't know what it's like to have a club want you for a member.