From Publishers Weekly:
In this slightly sugary story, Harriet's grandmother sends her a special birthday gift: a bear dressed as a ballerina, holding tickets to a performance of The Sleeping Beauty. When Harriet bring the bear with her to the ballet, the other toys feel resentful, and challenge the bear to show them her dancing skills. Stalling for time, she audits Harriet's ballet class and secretly attempts some plies before sobbing, "Why am I dressed like a ballerina if I can't dance?" When she can no longer put off performing for the other toys, the brave bear admits she is no ballerina-but offers to relay the story of the ballet she witnessed on stage. She does this with such flair that her audience proclaims her a "real ballerina bear." Winter's (A Baby Just Like Me) suitably soft, pastel-hued illustrations make graceful transitions between the narrative's two dissimilar fantasy-based settings, the domain of the talking dolls and the ballet stage. Though precious, the tale delivers a neat lesson on the rewards of self-acceptance. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist:
Ages 4^-6. For her birthday, her grandma gives Harriet tickets to the ballet and a teddy bear dressed as a ballerina to take to the performance. When the ballerina bear returns from the theater and meets Harriet's other toys, they laugh at her: "How can a bear be a ballerina?" And, indeed, in Harriet's ballet class the ballerina bear discovers that her arms are too short and her legs too stout and inflexible to execu te the basic positions of classical ballet. Instead, she decides to become a storyteller and gains the respect of the toys by entrancing them with tales from the ballet. Young dancers (who may also have some trouble with the basic positions of classical ballet) will find the rotund ballet bear a sympathetic character, both in the story and in the soft-focus drawings tinted with gentle watercolor washes. Carolyn Phelan
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.