Children's book question

[Michelle]

My ballet company is going to perform at the Ann Arbor Book Festival this year. We need to incorporate a children's book/story into a dance. Ideally, it would be pretty concise, have lots of characters, and be something that we could act out/dance to pretty easily. We have about 15-20 minutes to read the book, dance, and do something interactive with the kids. Any suggestions?

[bornn1977]

Snuggle Puppy (Boynton on Board) (Board book)
by Sandra Boynton

I don't know how old the kids are but my kids are 5 and 3 they love it. It's really cute.

[zeldafitzgerald]

How fun!

Two books I think could work well are:

What Do You Say, Dear? By Sesyle Joslin, Illustrated by Maurice Sendack. This is a really cute book that teaches manners in a really fun way. There are two main characters, but there could be lots of supporting ones in each of the situations. Also, the two main characters don't necessarily need to be played by the same two people the whole way through. You'll see what I mean if you read the book.

Here's an example from the book:
"You have gone downtown to do some shopping.
You are walking backwards, because sometimes
you like to, and you bump into a crocodile.

What do you say, dear?

Excuse me."

They are all little funny situations like that, that could all be fun to act and dance to.

Another suggestion is a book called "Nothing" by Jon Agee. It's a book about a shopkeeper who runs out of things to sell, and someone comes in and asks him what he has to sell. He replies, "Nothing." The woman is so delighted by this because she has been overwhelmed by somethings at all the other stores. She tells hiim she will buy the "nothing" he has for sale, and the story continues in silliness from there. Many other storekeepers and customers get involved, so there are plenty of parts.


A few books that might work well but that I don't have in front of me to look at or remember well enough to be sure are:

365 penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental. This is a story about a family whose uncle sends them an absurd amount of penguins, several each day I think. This one is iffy because you could obviously not have enough people to play 365 penguins, but it could possibly be adopted/improvised.

The Village of Round and Square Houses by Ann Grifalconi. This could be fun because it's a multicultural book about a Central African village. The men and women live in different shaped houses, round or square, respectively. They do this because of an old legend involving the volcano that looms over the village. I can't remember much more than this, but you can check out the book and read it if it sounds interesting so far.

Good luck! Let us know what you guys pick and how it all turns out!

[Michelle]

Thanks for the suggestions. We're actually trying to stay away from Maurice Sendack since Where the Wild Things Are is already a successful ballet and we can't compete with it. But I will definitely take a look at the other ones.

[emu]

If you want something iconic, how about something like 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'? Doesn't have lots of characters but may be able to have a number of dancers combine to form the caterpillar and the butterfly at the end? Could also lend itself activities around the theme of 'life cycle', food etc with the kids.

My other suggestion would be Julia Donaldson's 'The Gruffalo'. This has a similar flavour to an Aesop's fable, ie, is about a little mouse who manages to outsmart all these larger animals looking to eat him by telling htem about his made up friend, the Gruffalo. Then he really does come face to face with a Gruffalo who the mouse also manages to convince of his fearsomeness. It is pretty popular with kids here and in the UK. Not sure about the US?

These are both books that my 5yo son loves!

[emu]

Ah! Seems someone has already done a performance version of the Gruffalo! Not a ballet though:

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/reviews/the-gruffalo-criterion-theatre-london--none-onestar-twostar-threestar-fourstar-fivestar-500515.html

[Michelle]

We actually decided on Giraffes Can't Dance. But thanks for the suggestions. I will pass them on in case this becomes an annual thing.