En Pointe: Dogs Don't Do Ballet by Anna Kemp

MY DOG IS NOT LIKE OTHER DOGS.

NO, HE LIKES MUSIC AND MOONLIGHT AND WALKING ON HIS TIPPYTOES.

YOU SEE, MY DOG DOESN'T THINK HE'S A DOG.

Bif is a pudgy, pop-eyed pug who thinks he's a prima ballerina. When his little pig-tailed girl climbs into her tutu and leotard, Biff casts longing glances and begs to come along, and she just has to ask her dad to let him join her in ballet class.

"NO CHANCE!" SAYS DAD. "DOGS DON'T DO BALLET!"

But Bif's ballet lust is not so easily discouraged. The little girl feels that she is being watched through the window as the class runs through a new routine. It's Biff, ready to crash class and show that he's already mastered the new steps. "Dogs DON'T" proclaims Miss Polly, "do ballet!"

But the portly pug persists in his pursuit of ballet practice. He stows away on the bus his owner takes to the ballet school and tries to conceal his rotund form behind signs. And when the class takes a field trip to the city ballet's performance, Biff manages to sneak into the theatre just as the prima ballerina pirouettes right off the stage and into the tuba! It's a disaster for the dance troupe, until a tutu-clad furry figure jetes onstage and picks up the routine right on the beat! It looks as if some dogs do DO ballet! It's bravos all around for Bif!

And it's all in good fun in Anna Kemp's Dogs Don't Do Ballet (Simon & Schuster, 2010), and illustrator Sara Ogilvie provides just the persevering pug to, er, pick up the pace at the City Ballet's performance. The show must go on, and it will, with plenty of chuckles for this determined little doggy dancer.