Initially, I thought this was a much younger book with a much younger age appeal. However, Sugar Plum Ballerinas is really good for fourth grade (high third can read it; I think it would still hold interest for struggling fifth). It tells the story of Alexandra who moves from Georgia to Harlem. She wants to be a world-class skater, but her mother wants her to be a world-class ballerina. She enrolls her in Nutcracker School of Ballet. She's trying to adjust to her new life, though she really just wants to move back home. Then, she gets chosen for the Sugar Plum Ballerina - she can't do turns and she has horrible stage fright! How will she get through it all?This is a good story that has lots of "other" nuggets. Brenda speaks backwards because Leonardo da Vinci did and he was a genius. Epatha has an Italian grandmother and a Puerto Rican grandmother, so she speaks both Italian and Spanish as well as the warring grandmothers each serve a food of their culture. The majority of the characters are African-American, though race is never an issue in the book. And it introduces ballet, which may be of interest to some kids who don't have real exposure to it. This is a good book that can appeal to a lot of audiences. I read this book because I love books for children, sometimes they have something magical that I can not find in the Young adults' books.I could not care less if the writer is Whoopi Goldberg. I did not pick the book because she is famous and I did not judge the book because she is famous.Well, the protagonist is Alexandrea Petrakova Johnson, a 9 y.o that, all of a sudden, is forced to live in Harlem with her mother where she will continue to study ballet ( as her mother wishes), but Aleksandrea doesn't want to be a ballerina, she dreams to be a speed-skater!To change house, meet new friends, and keep doing what she does not want to do (ballet) is not easy for Aleksandrea, so she desperately wants to come back home. But her mother wants to have a career in New York. She is a stylist and thinks that Broadway needs her talent.So Aleksandrea keeps to study dance and meanwhile, at the ballet classes, she meets some girls that later will become her friends.Aleksandrea will learn to live in Harlem and will understand that, with fun and friends, ballet is not that bad.The book is kinda cute but I think it is written for a very Young audience. It is not deep and nothing particular happens.Just pages and pages of... nothing.At the end Aleksandrea and her friends skate all together, and she decides to do both ballet and skate and to remain in Harlem where her mother finally found a job thanks to her talent.It is a nice book that I would reccomend to children of 7 years old. It's written very easily and nothing magical is inside it. Probably I would read another book written by Whoppi Goldberg but I'd not espect anything.
What do You think about Plum Fantastic (2008)?
This book was so cute. I can't wait to give it to my God-daughters!
—gigglybear1
That being a suger plum fairy wouldn`t be so bad
—Shiela070795
