Review: The Tutu Ballet

Summary: Author Sally Lee celebrates writing and illustrating her twentieth children’s book about teamwork and creativity in “The Tutu Ballet."

Lee’s “The Tutu Ballet” tells the story of a Ms. Berry’s ballet class
and her students; a rabbit, fox, bear, and a mouse. Even though
the students try very hard to please, they tend to revert to their not
so perfect favorite ballet positions. Not sure what to do, Ms. Berry,
the dance teacher (a deer), decides to incorporate all the ballet
positions of her students to make a one-of-a-kind ballet performance for all the enjoy -- Press Release/Lee Publishing

A few months ago, I reviewed an adorable children's book called THE RABBIT AND THE SNOWMAN, written and illustrated by Sally Lee. When I saw that she has another book out called THE TUTU BALLET, I definitely wanted to take a look at it. Once again, Ms. Lee did not disappoint. I actually thing I enjoyed THE TUTU BALLET even more that THE RABBIT AND THE SNOWMAN.

The book is wonderful for the preschooler in your life. I read it to my four year old son and he really enjoyed it (once he got past calling it a girl book!) He especially liked how one of the characters liked to jump around and did the best jumps across the stage -- he thought that was really funny. I liked the overall message that the book conveyed: that although each animal had one ballet step that they loved to do and were very good at doing; when all the animals came together and performed their specialty, the recital ended up being wonderful. In these times, where so many of our children (and adults) are focused on me-me-me, it was nice to see this message of teamwork. I also thought it was nice to show that everyone has something that they do well -- each animal had a particular ballet step that they excelled at.

I think what I love most about Ms. Lee's books are her beautiful illustrations. Each page is filled with bright (yet soft) colors and lots of things for little ones to look at. There are only a few words or sentences on each page so the book can keep the attention of even the most "busy" kids. I just loved all the pictures in THE TUTU BALLET. I'm kind of a sucker for ballet, tutus, and cute animals so I found this book to be absolutely precious.

Ms. Lee has written and self-published 20 children's books -- you can read more about her in this article from MIT Tech Talk. I was impressed to find out that she has written a ten book series of children's books about a hearing impaired rabbit named Lucy. (Ms. Lee is actually deaf in one ear.) I absolutely adore her stories and especially her illustrations, and my kids do to. Her books are available for purchase at Amazon.