angelina's ballet class katharine holabird

'I like the drawings to make sense.'įor one book in the series, Angelina On Stage, Craig says she spent a lot of time consulting her father, who was a stage designer. 'I have great respect for the children who are looking at these books,' says Craig. 'I think Helen's illustrations have created such a magical world for Angelina,' says Holabird. It's a fully-realized snapshot of village life. It's where Angelina goes to buy balloons on her birthday. Thimble's store in the village sells dresses, potatoes, cut glass and sweets. The china has patterns, the butter melts on the table, the sink is full of dishes. 'So that I could move around and always get it right, because children are very sharp.' The house - and the town, and the ballet studio - are incredibly detailed. 'I made a plan of Angelina's cottage,' Craig says. What's not simple, though, are her illustrations of Angelina's world. 'In a small cottage without any running water. 'I lived in a very small village in Essex,' she says. Kids will notice if the drawings don't make senseĪngelina Ballerina is set in in the village of Chipping Cheddar - all thatched cottages and winding roads - a look from the 1940s East of England, where Craig grew up. 'They've got whiskers which express motion. 'They've got little hands, they've got a tail which expresses emotion,' says Craig. It's sort of universal.' And, while Angelina is a little white mouse, her parents are brown mice, and her ballet school classmates are also different-colored mice. 'Because you often hear little girls say 'Well I'm Angelina.' and because they're mice it's not fixed in any country or anything. 'It's very fortunate in a way,' says Craig.

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Angelina Ballerina

Angelina's ballet class katharine holabird