Ballet Besties: Yara's Chance to Dance

Ages 7 to 9, Grades 2 to 4

Pirouette your way to the Shimmer and Shine dance studio! This first offering in a fun, inclusive, and accessible early chapter-book series brings the joy of dance to young readers.

When Yara joins a community dance school, she meets lots of other children her age who are there to start their training or just for the fun of it. Soon she has a group of ballet besties she loves to dance with—until their grumpy landlady, Dame Clougston-Willmott, threatens to close the studio. Suddenly it’s up to Yara and her new friends to keep Shimmer and Shine open! Will putting on a performance of The Sleeping Beauty reawaken the Dame’s love for dance? Could Yara have a chance to dance her dream role of Aurora? And most important of all, can the ballet besties save their studio? From a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet and an award-winning children’s author comes an engaging story of friendship, responsibility, and teamwork, with back matter explaining the various dance techniques and more. Black-and-white illustrations bring a diverse group of characters to life.

About the Author

Yasmine Naghdi is a principal of the Royal Ballet and has been dancing with the company since 2010. Her many roles include Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), and the Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker). She has performed all over the world and is passionate about showing that ballet is for everyone. Yasmine Naghdi lives in London.

Chitra Soundar is the award-winning author of more than forty books for children, including a series of chapter books about Sona Sharma, illustrated by Jen Khatun, as well as A Sliver of Moon and a Shard of Truth: Stories from India, illustrated by Uma Krishnaswamy, and It’s Time to Hush and Say Good Night, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat. Chitra Soundar loves writing books in a variety of genres and travels the world visiting schools and appearing at festivals to bring Indian stories to children everywhere. She grew up in Chennai, India, and lives in southeast London.

Author Residence: England

Paula Franco studied illustration and graphic design at Instituto Superior Comunicación Visual in Argentina and now illustrates children’s books. She lives in Argentina.

Illustrator Residence:Argentina