National Dance Day coming up on September 17, so this is the perfect time to kick up our heels and dance! To lead our dancing, let’s welcome author Valarie Bolling with her picture book Let’s Dance!!
Let’s Dance! by Valerie Bolling, illustrated by Maine Diaz
This rhythmic picture book showcases dances from all over the world and features children of diverse backgrounds and abilities tapping, spinning, and boogying away! From the kuku of West Africa to the cha-cha of Cuba to the stepdancing of Ireland, dancing is everywhere you go. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
We are also giving away a copy of Let’s Dance!. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom! We hope enjoy National Dance Day! How will you celebrate? Thanks for sharing!
Let’s Dance Picture Books
A Girl Named Misty: The True Story of Misty Copeland by Kelly Staring Lyons, illustrated by Melissa Manwill
Learn how Misty Copeland, the first African-American female principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre, became interested in dancing and how ballet became her passion and purpose. Misty’s story is sure to inspire young readers to achieve their dreams, even when they are faced with challenges. [chapter book, ages 7 and up]
This Is It by Daria Peoples-Riley
This book is lyrical and motivational. As a girl prepares for a dance audition, her inner self pumps her up with self-affirming words, telling her that she’s got nothing to worry about. She’s got this. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
10 Ballet Dancers by Amanda Malek-Ahmadi, illustrated by Katherine Gutkovskiy
You’ll want to dance and count along with this book. Its rhymes lead the reader to the next number, and it has back matter with a glossary of the ballet terms used in the story. Many boy dancers are in the illustrations, exemplifying that boys dance, too! The book also has a surprise ending [picture book, ages 5 and up]
From A to Z with Energy by Connie Bergstein Dow, illustrated by Gareth Llewhellin
In addition to dancing, young readers will follow along to do other movements as they learn the alphabet in this rhyming book. The backmatter contains tips for parents and educators to extend the learning by using movement to teach listening, problem-solving, and other SEL skills. [picture book, ages 3 and up]
Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees
Giraffes can’t dance … until they can. This fun, rhyming book is about a giraffe who isn’t able to dance … until he hears music that inspires him to move and groove. This book exemplifies that we can all enjoy dancing when we find our music. [picture book, ages 3 and up]
Coming soon: Ride, Roll, Run: Time for Fun! by Valerie Bolling, illustrated by Sabrena Khadija (October 4, 2022)
This is another book by Valerie Bolling, illustrated by Sabrena Khadija, that celebrates movement. Children aren’t dancing in this book, but they are engaged in fun outdoor activities, including riding bikes, jumping rope, and playing basketball. [picture book, ages 3 and up]
Let’s Dance! Picture Book Giveaway
We are giving away a copy of Let’s Dance!. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter below! We can only mail to U.S. and A.F.O. addresses.
Valerie Bolling is the author of the 2021 SCBWI Crystal Kite award-winning and CT Book Award finalist LET’S DANCE! (March 2020). In 2022 Valerie is happy to welcome TOGETHER WE RIDE (April) and RIDE, ROLL, RUN: TIME FOR FUN! (October). Sequels to these books as well as a Scholastic early reader series, RAINBOW DAYS, are slated for 2023.
A graduate of Tufts University and Columbia University, Teachers College, Valerie has been an educator for almost 30 years. She currently works as an Instructional Coach for Greenwich Public Schools and is on the faculty at Westport Writers’ Workshop. She is also a WNDB mentor and deeply immersed in the kidlit writing community, particularly involved with SCBWI, the 12X12 Picture Book Challenge, and Black Creators HeadQuarters.
Valerie and her husband live in Connecticut and enjoy traveling, hiking, reading, going to the theater, and dancing. To learn more about Valerie, go to her website and Linktree, and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
To examine any book more closely at Indiebound or Amazon, please click on image of book.
As an Amazon and IndieBound Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
My books:
BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.
I will celebrate National Dance Day by exercising to music during my Jazzercise classes.
My girls love to dance and listen to music. You could say we celebrate National Dancing Day everyday in our house 🙂 Danza!: Amalia Hernández and El Ballet Folklórico de México is one of our favorite dance book. We actually won a signed copy from your blog a while back 🙂 Thank you for the opportunity!
A must read dance related picture book is Dancing in Thatha’s Footsteps by Srividhya Venkat and illustrated by Kavita Ramchandran (Yali Books, 2021). Thatha takes his granddaughter Varsha to weekly bharatanatyam classical dance lessons while her brother, Varun, tags along. Unexpectedly, the rhythm draws Varun in, but amid spirit crushing comments he’s uncertain that dance is for boys until Thatha shows his dance moves and reveals his past as a dancer in India.
I’ve been looking forward to reading this with my ballet-dancing daughter and my music-loving grandson. I also enjoyed reading Danza, mentioned above, and The Secret of the Tattered Shoes.
Wil have a dance party with the kiddo if I can
These books look great! One of my favorite books growing up was called Color Dance- it was kids dancing with scarves to show how different colors were made. I’m sure it’s not in print anymore, but these reminded me of it!
My favorite book about dancing is Giraffes Can’t Dance! My students adore hearing it every year. 30 second dance parties are a part of my classroom regularly
no fav
I like Giraffes Can’t Dance