By Misty Copeland
Ballerina Misty Copeland answers a young Black girl who's sure she could never dance the way Misty does.
A young girl watches a ballerina on stage and is certain she could never leap that high, never move like that, never get from where she stands to where the dancer stands. The ballerina is Misty Copeland, and she answers the girl. She tells her she was once small and unsure in the very same way, and that the space between them is only time and practice. There isn't a plot in the usual sense. It's poetry and collage more than story, one dancer speaking to a girl who could grow up to be her.
For a child who loves to dance but has already started to wonder whether they're good enough, this is the book that says someone felt that too and got there anyway. Misty Copeland became a principal ballerina against long odds, and what she says here is plain and generous. Christopher Myers's collage illustrations are bold and glowing, and they won a Coretta Scott King Award. It's less a plot than a promise, and it works best handed to a specific child who's already doubting their own dancing.