Review by Jacqueline Thomas
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2023
28 pages, Hardcover, $23.99 CAN, 9781665917032
Picture Book, ages 4-8
Fiction, Humour
Misha’s cat rides on the vacuum cleaner. Margot’s cat steals stuffies from her bed. Vaslav’s cat pulls clothes out of the drawers. Poor Hillary just has a dog that loves to play fetch. We all laugh at that. “Neat!” I say. “But my cat does ballet!” He dances with our new puppy in a pas de deux. In fast chassés he chases mice into the pantry. Lia’s cat shreds toilet paper. Roberto’s cat hides pairs of socks for fun. Karen’s cat whirls round on the ceiling fan.
My cat may be able to open doors, but that’s clearly nothing compared to the talents of the cat in Robert Heidbreder’s My Cat Does Ballet. In case you missed it from the title, this cat does BALLET. The author introduces audiences to a world where all the best ballerinas have cats, and it is the responsibility of our young protagonist and his own cat to teach their furry friends how to do proper arabesques in the ultimate kitty ballet lesson. This book is funny and very realistic about the attitudes of cats, using their snarky and sarcastic personalities to provide the humour and tone for the book.
As a former ballerina and a perpetual cat lover, this book had my heart from the beginning. It is funny, informative and the main character and his cat are easy to love and relate to. This is a feel good book, with no huge sense of conflict. The story is simply about a boy trying his best to teach his friends so that they can have a great experience together.
However, just like mothers are able to sneak vegetables into their children’s mac and cheese, this book sneaks in learning without the reader even noticing. It prompts more conversation and discovery about the beautiful art of ballet and the variety of the real life people who participate in it. The mini biographies and explanations of the French ballet terms are enough information to get readers interested but still allows for them to continue learning on their own. The author does a great job of incorporating age appropriate ballet terms that would be used in readers’ ballet classes while also using French words for animals, broadening the audience’s vocabulary even further.
The only thing I wish could have been different was the layout of the terms and descriptions. While I do understand why the biographies and the ballet terms index were placed at the back of the book, it made for a very dense read at the end of the book that many young readers might be intimidated by and likely skip over. An amendment to fix this could have been spreading the ballet term explanations throughout the book so that the audience do not have to tackle two full spreads of dense writing.
I would recommend My Cat Does Ballet to any one who is a cat lover, an aspiring ballerina or someone who wishes to learn about the wonderful world of ballet dancing in a tangible, funny and straightforward way.
Jacqueline is a first year psychology student at UBC. She loves books and you will often find her daydreaming about the next book she wants to write rather than doing her work. She loves to dance, go paddle boarding and hang out with her cat (and her friends).
YOUNG ADULTING 