Gotta Dance! Ballerina Rosie by Sarah Ferguson

ROSIE WORE HER TUTU EVERYWHERE.

HER TUTU WAS GREAT FOR TREE CLIMBING.

But clothes don't make the man, and the tutu doesn't make the dancer. Rosie may point her toes perfectly when she slides down a banister, and score when she slides her tutu over her school's team shorts, but when she finally begins the long-awaited ballet lessons, Rosie finds that her athletic skills don't quite transfer to match the profile of a prima ballerina:

CRASH! ROSIE TRIPPED INTO FRANCESCA.

TRY AS SHE MIGHT, ROSIE SEEMED TO HAVE LOST HER TALENT FOR DANCING!

But after a short depressive slump, with her mom's support and Madame Natalie's tutelage, Rosie perfects her plie and pirouette with plenty of practice. And the red ballet slippers Mdme. Natalie presents her with seem to give her the psychological boost she needs to polish that awesome arabesque, and at last Rosie earns what she has long hoped to hear:

BRAVA, ROSIE!

If Sarah Ferguson intended to invoke the ghost of Hans Christian Andersen's ever-dancing "Red Shoes," it is clearly a case of misfit imagery in her latest, Ballerina Rosie (Simon & Schuster, 2012). While Caldecott-award winner Diane Goode's illustrations of the would-be prima ballerina are vivacious and charming (if a bit inaccurate for the novice dancer), Ferguson's too wordy storytelling makes this predictable pinkanista tale drag a bit, despite its worthy if well-worn premise that practice makes perfect. Still, young ballet fans who have blown through Marilyn Singer's better-written Tallulah's Tutu and sequel or Grace Maccarone's endearing Miss Lina's Ballerinas and its sequel (see my reviews here and here) (not to mention the venerable Angelina Ballerina 25th Anniversary Edition and Ballet Kitty: Ballet Class,) and still want more will likely go for Duchess Sarah's little tribute to balletomania.