Book Confessions of an Ex-Ballerina

For the early grades' exploration of character education, this funny book offers a perfect example of the rewards of perseverance and creativity. The girl's frustration and anger are vividly depicted in the detailed art, and the story offers good options for dealing honestly with these feelings, while at the same time reassuring children that it's okay to make mistakes. The clever use of verbs in groups of threes is both fun and functional, offering opportunities for wonderful vocabulary enrichment. The girl doesn't just make her magnificent thing --- "she tinkers and hammers and measures, she smoothes and wrenches and fiddles, she twists and tweaks and fastens." These precise action words are likely to fire up the imaginations of youngsters eager to create their own inventions and is a great tie-in to learning about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. 
Review:What an awesome story! My three year old sat through this whole book as we read about the little girl who wanted to make something magnificent, but she couldn't get it right. Every time we turned the page, my son would ask "What is it?" He was super excited at the end of the book when the most magnificent thing was finally done. Loved this story. Loved the art, it was fantastic. Loved my son's reaction.