Tiny Treasury

By Katharine Holabird, Illustrated by Helen Craig

 Miss Lilly’s Ballet School has been invited to perform for the Princess of Mouseland! Angelina longs for a lead in the Mouseland ballet, gets sick, and misses her chance. 

Angelina has a dance recital coming up and she is pining away for a major role. She is so excited that she stays up all night practicing. The next morning she’s too sick to try out and Mother makes her stay home, or tries to anyway. Angelina sneaks out to the auditions, flubs her try-out for a leading role in “The Dance of the Flower Fairies” and is cast in a tiny part. Barely able to crawl back home and into her worried mother’s arms, she is so disappointed that she wants to quit ballet. She knows she behaved badly and danced poorly, and her mother admits as much too, which brings me to one of the things I love about this book–there’s no sugar-coating the fact that Angelina has gotten herself into a pickle. Eventually, though, she decides to work hard for her friends in the performance. Angelina’s decision leads to an unexpected turn of events–and a happy ending for everyone.

 This Angelina story deals with doing your best-even if you’re not picked to lead. Each book is filled with wonderful life lessons told in a gentle, non preachy way.

 Once again the unbeatable duo of Katharine Holabird (author) and Helen Craig (illustrator) combine to create a supremely lovable book. The illustrations by Helen Craig are truly a treat. Set vaguely in a Victorian England mousedom, they depict tiny cottages with climbing vines, drapey dresses with floral prints, tiaras, bouquets, adorable furniture, and so on. Three cheers to both Helen Craig and author Katharine Holabird for a book which is a joy to read and great fun to peruse just for the illustrations alone!