Dance is For Everyone Book Review

I'd not heard of author and illustrator Andrea Zuill before however when I caught wind of her latest children's book Dance is For Everyone, I just had to have a read, with the children of course.

When an alligator shows up to class one day, Mrs. Iraina and her ballet students are very surprised. But she is able to follow along, so they decide it's okay for her to join. (Would YOU say no to an aliigator?) The class starts calling her Tanya and even creates a new dance to showcase her larger-than-life talents and big, swishy tail: "The Legend of the Swamp Queen." Tanya has a starring role.

Now lets be honest how surprised would you be to find an alligator turning up in your class? I can imagine the words I'd use and the faces I would pull if faced in  the same situation, in all honestly I would probably turn around and run out of the room screaming.

However what Andrea is trying to demonstrate in this quirky tale is that it sure isn't nice to exclude anyone, no matter who they are, their shape, size etc shouldn't really matter, as a society we should definitely learn to be more inclusive.

Throughout the book this subtle message is delivered both through the words on the pages and the rather entertaining illustrations. My youngest laughed a lot as we turned the pages, there is a wonderful style that is demonstrated throughout the story.

We can't always communicate as well as we'd like to with us in a verbal manner, certain barriers may prevent this, from simply not understanding to being unable to speak another persons language however what we learn as we read is that there are other ways to show a person that they care.

Tanya the alligator is a loveable character and as animal stories go this is definitely a good one. There is a lovely twist at the end of the story that really tickled me and got me thinking about how positive events can have an even better impact on others around us.

Dance is For Everyone is imaginative and packed full of humour and is ultimately a very sweet piece of literature that manages to teach an important life lesson whilst providing the some wonderful reading material, a book to be treasured.