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85th out of 334 books
—
319 voters
To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel
by
Siena Cherson Siegel,
Mark Siegel (Goodreads Author)
Dancers are young when they first dream of dance. Siena was six -- and her dreams kept skipping and leaping, circling and spinning, from airy runs along a beach near her home in Puerto Rico, to dance class in Boston, to her debut performance on stage with the New York City Ballet.
To Dance tells and shows the fullness of her dreams and her rhapsodic life they led to. Part f...more
To Dance tells and shows the fullness of her dreams and her rhapsodic life they led to. Part f...more
Hardcover, 64 pages
Published
October 1st 2006
by Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
(first published September 5th 2006)
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Book Review:
I loved the illustrations. Loved the color, Loved the ribbons that ran through it. Loved it! The writing...mmm, it was a bit disjointed and clunky but over all it worked.
A bunch of other ramblings...
When I was a kid we were poor. Not Frank McCourt poor, not we might have to eat the dog poor. but still, poor.
poor like, no insurance poor, and going to McDonalds was a MAJOR TREAT poor, wearing socks for gloves in the winter poor, and babysiting the siblings at the berry field that my mo...more
I loved the illustrations. Loved the color, Loved the ribbons that ran through it. Loved it! The writing...mmm, it was a bit disjointed and clunky but over all it worked.
A bunch of other ramblings...
When I was a kid we were poor. Not Frank McCourt poor, not we might have to eat the dog poor. but still, poor.
poor like, no insurance poor, and going to McDonalds was a MAJOR TREAT poor, wearing socks for gloves in the winter poor, and babysiting the siblings at the berry field that my mo...more
3 likes · like · see review
view all 10 comments
OK. The illustrations are pretty cool. And full color. Yes, they convey emotion and movement, more so than other J graphic novels. And yes, she talks about how hard being a ballet dancer is, so as not to give prospective dancers false hope. But a Siebert Award? All I'm saying is, it was no Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. Or even Secrets of a Civil War Submarine. Was the committee just throwing graphic novels a bone? But girls will probably like it, and it's nice to see a postive, female centric,...more
1 like · like · see review
As I was reading To Dance by Siena Cherson Siegel, the pictures and dialogue made it feel like I was in the young dancer’s shoes. Siena fell in love with dance at a very young age when her mother made her start taking classes to improve the arches of her flat feet. After living in Puerto Rico, the family moved to Boston, then later to New York so Siena could attend the School of American Ballet, SAB.
Being a dancer, I could easily connect with the emotions that Siena felt when she danced. At one...more
Being a dancer, I could easily connect with the emotions that Siena felt when she danced. At one...more
4.5 stars.
Half the problem of reviewing autobiographies is that you tend to compare the experiences depicted in the book with your own. This didn't go so well for the last book I read (or maybe it did: I'm inclined to think now that I probably gave it an extra star out of pity,) but when you meet a book that synchronizes perfectly with your own worldview, it's hard to rein in the enthusiasm.
To Dance is one of the latter for me, telling the story of a young girl who grew up taking ballet lessons...more
Half the problem of reviewing autobiographies is that you tend to compare the experiences depicted in the book with your own. This didn't go so well for the last book I read (or maybe it did: I'm inclined to think now that I probably gave it an extra star out of pity,) but when you meet a book that synchronizes perfectly with your own worldview, it's hard to rein in the enthusiasm.
To Dance is one of the latter for me, telling the story of a young girl who grew up taking ballet lessons...more
The illustrations in this book are breathtaking. The likeness of the ballerinas and dance positions drawn are just like the real thing. While the illustrations are cartoons, they are still extremely accurate and capture the essence of ballet. The colors and pages full of illustration make up for the lack of actual story. The words of the story are written well, but cut short before the author moves on to the next segment of story of her life. I definitely feel like this was the case on the last...more
To Dance is a memoir about a young girl who falls in love with ballet at a young age and strives to become a ballerina herself. The story follows Siena from Puerto Rico to the School of American Ballet in New York City in the 1970’s. This memoir is told in a graphic novel format illustrated by the author’s husband Mark Siegel, who has written and illustrated several children’s books of his own. The author’s personal story paired with vibrant and dramatic illustrations offers a fascinating and fu...more
Siegel, S.C. (2006). To Dance: A ballerina's graphic novel. New York: Richard Jackson Book.
0689867476
58 pages.
Appetizer: This middle grade graphic novel is a memoir of Siena Cherson Siegel's desire to become a ballerina. The story follows her as Siena moves from Puerto Rico to the U.S. and back, realizes she wants to be a ballerina and makes sacrifices to achieve her dream.
Throughout the background of Siena's ever increasing number of dance practices, her parents struggle to make their marriage...more
0689867476
58 pages.
Appetizer: This middle grade graphic novel is a memoir of Siena Cherson Siegel's desire to become a ballerina. The story follows her as Siena moves from Puerto Rico to the U.S. and back, realizes she wants to be a ballerina and makes sacrifices to achieve her dream.
Throughout the background of Siena's ever increasing number of dance practices, her parents struggle to make their marriage...more
I was drawn to this book because of its appealing format as a graphic novel, a medium which middle grade readers enjoy. That fact that it is a memoir, a genre which we study and produce in fourth grade, was also appealing. To Dance is Siena Siegel’s life story as a dancer, from when she was six years old and dreamed of filling open spaces with dance through her training at School of American Ballet, to her debut performance on stage with the New York City Ballet, her decision at 18 to attend c...more
Great graphic novel starter for girls.
Easy to read and understand, has strong plot.
Booklist
*Starred Review* A husband and wife team up to provide an insightful, accessible, and aesthetically engaging graphic novel that follows the latter's dance career. Well- proportioned watercolor panels trace Siena Cherson Siegel's involvement with ballet from her introduction to it at the age of six and her training as an adolescent at the School of American Ballet to her leaving professional dance when she...more
Easy to read and understand, has strong plot.
Booklist
*Starred Review* A husband and wife team up to provide an insightful, accessible, and aesthetically engaging graphic novel that follows the latter's dance career. Well- proportioned watercolor panels trace Siena Cherson Siegel's involvement with ballet from her introduction to it at the age of six and her training as an adolescent at the School of American Ballet to her leaving professional dance when she...more
The book To Dance is a graphic novel about a young girl and her aspirations of becoming a dancer. The story begins with the six-year old dreaming of dancing while seeing a doctor about her flat fleet. The story is told from the main characters point of view as she takes readers on her journey of struggles and moments of triumph. Her family history and the backstage drama are captured to show the young girls character development into a beautiful young woman. Each page is filled with beautiful il...more
To Dance by Siena Cherson Siegel, is a graphic novel follows the life of the main character Siena. Siena Cherson Sigel wrote the book about herself. Siena lives in Puerto Rico with her mom, dad and brother. She was told that she can never dance because of her flat fleet. For many, this would have discouraged, but not Siena a six year old girl at the time! The story uses colorful pictures which guide the story of the life of Siena through her ups and downs. When she gets older she goes to New Yor...more
Title; To Dance, A Ballerina's Graphic Novel
Author; Siena Cherson Siegel
Genre: Graphic Novel
Summary: A young girl realizes that her dream to become a ballerina involves rewards and hardships.
A. This critique addresses the theme of this story.
B. In this story, the dreams and passion of a young girl propel her to endure hardships and make sacrifices to achieve her goal. Also, the main character, is not given a name, she is just a nameless girl in pursuit of a dream, allowing her to be viewed as an...more
Author; Siena Cherson Siegel
Genre: Graphic Novel
Summary: A young girl realizes that her dream to become a ballerina involves rewards and hardships.
A. This critique addresses the theme of this story.
B. In this story, the dreams and passion of a young girl propel her to endure hardships and make sacrifices to achieve her goal. Also, the main character, is not given a name, she is just a nameless girl in pursuit of a dream, allowing her to be viewed as an...more
SUMMARY: To Dance follows the ballet career of a young girl who always loved to dance from age six until her early 20s. We watch Siena become captivated by the Bolshoi Ballet, and cement her decision early on to become a ballerina. Siena and her family move a few times, and she attends a variety of ballet schools, until they finally settle in New York. Here Siena began attending the School of American Ballet (SAB) where she gradually intensified her studies, until she was eighteen. Siena attends...more
Siena wanted to dance more then anything else in the world. She loved how dancing made her feel, and how successful she was at it. Her favorite type of dance was ballet. Siena was originally from Puerto Rico and came to the United States to attend The School of American Ballet. She enjoyed performing and making new friends with the other ballerinas. In her early teens ballet was an escape from the growing problems and tensions between her parents. Siena loved ballet and danced until the age of 1...more
To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel is a dance through its word choice and graphic artwork. Each chapter title can be found on a swirling ribbon that intertwines throughout the story. When specific ballets are chapter titles, the chapter title is presented with an image from that particular ballet.
In this novel, a young girl's passion for dance is felt immediately, and I had to pause to balance the meaning of the words with the action of the illustrations. By the time I was nearing the climax...more
In this novel, a young girl's passion for dance is felt immediately, and I had to pause to balance the meaning of the words with the action of the illustrations. By the time I was nearing the climax...more
This is an appealing and informative graphic novel. I felt like I was backstage myself when I was reading about all the little daily pieces of the life of a ballerina and I like how the author shares facts about dancing that I didn't know because I was never a dancer. It is touching how Ms. Siegel discusses the problems between her parents and how dancing is a way for her to escape her concerns for a while. Children in the same situation might gain comfort from reading about Ms. Siegel's experie...more
Independent Reading: 2-5th grade
Siegel’s creativity and energy is fully expressed in her memoir, “To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel”. Her husband Mark Siegel’s illustrations portrayed her life and dancing in an elegant yet comical manner. The text compliments the cartoon creations, yet stands apart in thinking and dialogue bubbles and framed boxes above the picture with a white background. Various phases of her life are broken into subtitles that are made cohesive by being written on a balle...more
Siegel’s creativity and energy is fully expressed in her memoir, “To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel”. Her husband Mark Siegel’s illustrations portrayed her life and dancing in an elegant yet comical manner. The text compliments the cartoon creations, yet stands apart in thinking and dialogue bubbles and framed boxes above the picture with a white background. Various phases of her life are broken into subtitles that are made cohesive by being written on a balle...more
Reading level: 3-7
Siegel and Siegel use a graphic novel format to create this story. The use of pictures mixed with text make this book an easy and fast read. The pictures are small throughout the book, but the pictures are very detailed. The faces on the pictures show a lot of emotion and all of the different characters in the story have a very different look. Much of the book appears to be colored in with crayons. The pictures have some white space on the inside of the black lines that make t...more
Siegel and Siegel use a graphic novel format to create this story. The use of pictures mixed with text make this book an easy and fast read. The pictures are small throughout the book, but the pictures are very detailed. The faces on the pictures show a lot of emotion and all of the different characters in the story have a very different look. Much of the book appears to be colored in with crayons. The pictures have some white space on the inside of the black lines that make t...more
A husband and wife team up to provide an insightful, accessible, and aesthetically engaging graphic novel that follows the latter's dance career. Well- proportioned watercolor panels trace Siena Cherson Siegel's involvement with ballet from her introduction to it at the age of six and her training as an adolescent at the School of American Ballet to her leaving professional dance when she reached college and her return to it several years later, "because I still need[ed:] to dance." The fully re...more
Summary: To Dance is a graphic novel about a young girl that loves to dance. She dreams of being a dancer and this book takes you through her journey. The book is not only a graphic novel in which the main character is a girl, but it is also the memoir. The young girl has flat feet as a child and gets inspired to take dance because of a Russian ballerina as well as her mother’s idea to take lessons. She began lessons in Boston and then back in Puerto Rico where she was from. Once accepted to a b...more
1 like · like · see review
Another YA project book. I really enjoyed this and didn't think I was going to given the subject matter, as I think dancers are usually full of themselves. However, I really enjoyed it. It was story of the author from age 6 to about 20, when she first started ballet dancing to when she went back to it years later. I used to want to do ballet, ok really I wanted to skip straight to the pointy toe shoes, but when I found out that was probably 6 yrs of ballet down the road before you got those shoe...more
To Dance, is a memoir by Siena Cherson Siegel with illustrations by her husband, Mark Siegel. The story is about her life from the time she was a little girl with a dream of dancing through her teen years. When Siena was six her doctor told her mother that she was “flat-footed,” and that she would never be able to dance. Her family moved around a lot, but her mother kept signing her up for dance classes. She worked so hard and was accepted into the School of American Ballet (SAB). She thrived i...more
Autobiographical graphic novel about a young girl who pursues her dream of becoming a ballerina. The panels and the art are creatively done, with different layouts on every page, and often the illustrations spill outside the borders of the panels. The book is easy to follow, as much of the text bridges across multiple panels, showing your eyes which way to go. There are many intricate details throughout the text with reoccuring pictures and creatively intertwined ribbons throughout the book. The...more
3rd – 5th grades
Mark Siegel did a wonderful job on the illustrations with this book. He used many vivid colors that were bright and dramatic. I think that even though he used cartooning, his characters had a lot of emotion showing with each of his pictures. You could see the happiness, confusion, and even anger in each character which I thought was neat to see in this type of cartooning. The text was very small and a little hard for me to read. The story was very meaningful and inspiring for all...more
Mark Siegel did a wonderful job on the illustrations with this book. He used many vivid colors that were bright and dramatic. I think that even though he used cartooning, his characters had a lot of emotion showing with each of his pictures. You could see the happiness, confusion, and even anger in each character which I thought was neat to see in this type of cartooning. The text was very small and a little hard for me to read. The story was very meaningful and inspiring for all...more
Apr 06, 2012
Lauren Kramer
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
young-adult-2012
I take an interest in dance very much so I knew I had to read this book. The story takes a young girl, Siena, through her life of wanting to be a ballerina and then fighting and working hard towards reaching that goal. It all started when the first time she ever saw a ballerina perform she knew she could do nothing else in life. It also helped that she had a spirit for dance and enjoyed freely moving to the music that she heard. This journey for Siena develops her into a beautiful person, inside...more
To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel is a great book to read. I can relate to this book since my daughter dances ballet. For a dancer it's the magic created with a final performance that creates a dreamlike outlook of their future with dance. Many young dancers have a dream of being dancers, and the magic of that dream in this book spirals from Siena's mom believing that flat feet may be fixed with ballet dance classes. Siena begins amateur dancing in her hometown of Puerto Rico, then continues...more
To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel is an inspirational story of a child who has always dreamed of dancing. She begins training in ballet when she is very young. She continues to the American School of Ballet until she hurts her ankle. This might have stopped other people in the pursuit of their dreams but not Siegel. She recovers and continues dancing. This is a different way of telling an autobiography. The story is set up in a graphic novel format. The story uses simple, uncluttered waterco...more
Oct 28, 2010
Shenea705
added it
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Grades 4-6
Siena Cherson Siegel tells her story of how a flat-footed young girl became a renowned ballerina. The book follows her journey from childhood, when she would find any and every reason to dance. Mark Siegel illustrates the harships and accomplishment throughout the story. He was able to bring life-like emotion to the cartoon-like characters in his illustrations. The fact that the author chose to tell her story through a graphic novel will appeal to readers. It provides a light, airy ton...more
Siena Cherson Siegel tells her story of how a flat-footed young girl became a renowned ballerina. The book follows her journey from childhood, when she would find any and every reason to dance. Mark Siegel illustrates the harships and accomplishment throughout the story. He was able to bring life-like emotion to the cartoon-like characters in his illustrations. The fact that the author chose to tell her story through a graphic novel will appeal to readers. It provides a light, airy ton...more
Siena grew up in Puerto Rico, Boston, and New York. She started taking ballet lessons when she was very young and fell in love with her classes. When she saw Maya Plisetskaya perform with the Bolshoi Ballet she decided that she wanted to be a professional ballerina, too. She continued to take classes and eventually her family moved to New York after she auditioned for and was accepted at the School of American Ballet. Siena describes her training, her performances, her love of dance in her graph...more
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