Ella and Olivia - 3 - Ballet Stars product reviews

Having already read the first two Ella and Olivia books my daughter's eyes lit up when I showed her I had the third and fourth. She chose to read Ballet stars first, perhaps it was because she was already prancing around in a tutu and ballet mad.

At only four years of age she is too young to read this herself but had the attention span to listen to me reading it. There were enough pictures to maintain of interest but the story didn't rely on them. As my darling listened to the story she would act out the ballet moves that Ella was doing.

One of the great things about this series is that the books can be read to a younger child but an average seven year old would be capable of reading it to themselves. I imagine in a couple of years when my youngest is four and eldest is six or seven they will be fighting over it or hopefully big sister is reading to little sister.

I also love the message that comes through the in this story about coping with disappointment and working together as a family. I would recommend the child is familiar with the story of Cinderella as it is referred to throughout.

This book was my first introduction to Ella and Olivia. The book series is about two sisters and their family. This book in particular is about Ella's ballet class.

The book is in the style of a school reader. It is more advanced than what my 5 year old is up to, but would probably suit an advanced 5 - 7 year old. The sentence style reminded me a little of the Boy vs Beast series. The sentences are nice and short and easy to read. The font is huge as well so each page doesn't have a lot of wordage.

The book has many black and white illustrations of the sisters and their family. There are also lots of hearts and stars littered through the pages. This provides a nice break from the words and help the reader picture the scenes.

I use to do ballet at primary school so I enjoyed this book a lot. It has lots of ballet terms in it. But what I liked was that each term was then explained to the reader. That was good because for some I had forgotten what it meant. It also helped round out the story.

I related to the family too. At one point one of the children has a tantrum and the way it is told in the story was excellent. I could hear my own voice through the mother character, and I could see my daughter in the reaction the child was having. So even though its a very simple story and made for new readers, it definitely hit the right notes for me and kept me reading.

This one is definitely a re-readable book for me and my girls. At $10 its great value and I can't wait til my eldest is old enough to read it back to me. Hard to believe that will not be too far off!