The Sleeping Beauty

by Charles Perrault, Nikita Polyansky, Ima Ebong

Book Overview

This book introduces to the reader the young, 11-year-old Lena Gabrielle, who wants to attend the debut performance of The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. Informed by her father that this is impossible-the performance is sold out-Lena Gabrielle begins her secret journey through the streets of the fabulous historic city, in an effort to get to the Mariinsky to see the ballet. During the course of her travels statues...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 097211520X
• ISBN13: 9780972115209
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Glitterati
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 9.0" x 10.7"
• Age Range: 8 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 3 and higher

Customer Reviews

Like Shrek, Like Madeline

This book is a little gem! Like Shrek, you enter the wonderful dreamscape of fairy tales, and like Madeline, you have these delightful Bemelmans-esque illustrations and the tale of a very determined little girl. The story is a dream-within-a-dream type. Lena-Gabrielle dreams of going to the ballet alone (without parents) and fantastically the city of St. Petersburg becomes alive with talking gargoyles and things; then, she dreams of seeing the ballet of "The Sleeping Beauty" at the Mariinsky Theatre. This part of the story is based on the 1729 translation of the libretto of the actual ballet as performed in Russia. You feel so good about this book because it is such a great introduction to "the arts" --Fairy tales and literature, ballet, talk of great architecture, etc. It's a sure hit for almost any young girl and a pretty darn good story for boys, too. Excellent for bedtime reading and with enough rich illustration to challenge young readers to go it alone.