Sugar Plum Ballerinas #1: Plum Fantastic

My granddaughter loved it

Alexandrea Petrakova Johnson is not crazy about ballet, but her mother is. So much so, she has filled Alexandrea's room with everything ballet. Her bedroom mirror has pink ballet shoes painted around it, she has pink ballet shoe drawer handles, the lamp, comforter and pillowcases have ballet shoes too. Her mother was so obsessed with all things ballet that she moved them to Harlem New York so that Alexandrea could attend the Nutcracker School of Ballet and so that she could get a job designing costumes.Ms. Debbe, the ballet instructor, announces that there will be a drawing for the Sugar Plum Fairy dance. All the class is excited with the exception of Alexandrea. She is not interested at all and feels that her chances are slim of being picked, because she has the competition of 23 other students. But as fate would have it, she is picked to be the Sugar Plum Fairy. Alexandrea is worried that she won't be able to learn the routine and once on stage, she will make a complete fool of herself in front of lots of people.When she watches her favorite speed skater on television actually doing a ballet routine, she begins to have hope. She will need lots of help from her new friends at the Nutcracker school. Alexandrea is having fun and bonding with her new friends, until she comes home one day to find her mother has packed them up after two months of living in New York.Goldberg has done an excellent job of introducing this wonderful story of ballet. Moving to a new town and making friends is tough for anyone. This is a quick read and a hilarious story that young girls will relate to. The back of the book has the definitions of the ballet terms used.

My best friend's daughter loves ballet but we can never find anything ballet related that looks like her, so I was excited to find this book series. Plus there's a matching doll! I plan on getting her the doll for Christmas and a book each birthday/holiday until she has the whole series. It's nice for her to see herself represented in something she enjoys, I wish there were more things like this.

I purchased Sugar Plum Ballerinas books 1-5 as a gift for my 8yr old daughter who loves ballet. As an African-American parent, I want to provide my child with as many positive images of herself as possible. The book has age-appropriate language that will keep the targeted audience engaged. Many times I walk past her room and see her laying on her bed laughing or commenting to herself because of something she just read.At least twice a week, one of her homework assignments is "Reading Log" where she picks her book reads two chapters and responds to specific questions from the story. Each time she picks "Sugar Plum Ballerinas" and I am jumping for joy. Since she started elementary school getting her to read beyond when it was required for a homework assignment was a battle.I've already ordered the final book in the series. While I'm sad to see the series end I am grateful these books have given my daughter the confidence, desire, and love for reading.

This book was great. Perfect reading for a 7-8 year old. The storytelling really drew me and my daughter in. She was excited about going to bed so that she could read to me. She was a little hesitant about reading a chapter book, but after reading the second page she was hooked. My reason for getting this book was so my daughter could have characters she could relate to. I liked the fact that there where characters that looked like her. I think she made a better connection with them because of that. This was want I wanted for her plus some. She can read this on her own or with me or her father. Can't wait to finish the series.

Very nice! I bought the book for my little niece, but she hasn’t learned to read yet. I started reading it to her and was taken away myself by the story. I had to reread some of the characters a couple of times, just to distinguish who was who; but it all fit together for me quickly thereafter.The story kept a good pace and had a sweet story to tell.I plan to get all of the books for my niece, whom I’m sure when she does learn to read, will be truly delighted with them.

I bought the first two books of this wonderful series before my daughter actually started reading a couple years ago. Now that she is in the first grade, this series has helped to give her an excitement for reading that I had when I was young reading Judy Blume. Hurray Ms. Whoopi for giving us some books for our little girls to see themselves in. The Sugar Plum Sisters are a very recognizable group of young girls with real life issues. My daughter absolutely loves this series and we can't wait for the next book to come out! The stories are wonderful and believable. Definitely food for thought for young minds. If you don't have any children of your own, please consider buying for someone elses' child!! You are the best Ms. Whoopi and thank you AGAIN!

My daughters love this book. The storyline is adorable and they love seeing little girls who look like them on the cover. That was one of the first things my 8 year old noticed when I gave it to her and it made her SO excited to read. #representationmatters

I bought this book for my neices, so they can identity with and read books with pics of children who look like them. The book is good, but the pictures are not in colour so that was not so exciting. Good vocabulary and story line though. Book is 155 pages long :)

So far, so good. My 6 yr old daughter loves the story so far, she wanted me to read her more on the first night. She even attempted to read some herself. Was a thicker book than I was expecting so will take a week or so to read it all. I am actually intrigued by the story myself. Maybe purchasing more for the girls in my family. Very glad there is a series. Brilliant to have a story for my brown skinned beauty.

Lovely story, daughter enjoyed. But why is it black and white ?? No colour at all inside. Really makes the book boring which is a shame because the cover is so nice and colourful.

This is the second time I have brought this book. First time I brought it for my sister who was 10 at the time and the second time was brought for a 7 year old. I haven't read the book personally but both girls really liked the books and have requested more in the series

:)