Miss Rosie's Academy of Dance

Publisher: New Holland Publishers

Miss Rosie’s Academy of Dance is a very special school for talented kittens - so Annie Twinkle-toes is absolutely thrilled when she is accepted. Follow the shy little kitten in her first week at Miss Rosie’s Academy. It is a week full of ballet (in fact, of all sorts of dancing), learning and most importantly, making new friends.

Annie Twinkle-toes and her fellow dancing cats will enthral all little girls (and some little boys) especially those who love dancing and kittens. Miss Rosie’s Academy of Dance will appeal primarily to 3-8 year olds. 

- All kittens drawn doing ballet are in true classical positions with correct ballet technique  (alignment, turn out, pointed toes, arm positions correctly shaped/placed).
-Ballet vocabulary referring to basic ballet steps and positions are included in story.
-Story runs through school week in chronological order, mentioning each day of the week as it comes (helping children learn days of the week).

-The Academy clock showing the correct class time is shown on all pages which depict the kittens commencing a new lesson (familiarise children with telling the time on an analogical clock).

-References to a real traditional ballet (Sleeping Beauty), with pictures of costumes (Blue-bird and Aurora), that are faithful to the original ballet.  These references also mention famous conductors and dates that are correct.

There is a strong message in the story about working hard at school/ dancing but also lessons about how important it is to smile, say hello and make new friends.

Saska Scoon slipped on her first pair of ballet shoes at four, and adopted her first kitten, whom she named Pretty-Paws, in the same year. Just a year or so later, she was lucky enough to start learning Italian from a gorgeous, vivacious teacher the children called Ciao Bella. Now, over ten years later, Saska is in high school, she’s still happily studying ballet and Italian and still loves Pretty-Paws, no longer a sweet, little kitten but now a big, somewhat grumpy middle-aged cat!

Saska wrote about all the things she loved when she was little, and still loves now. Being introduced to dancing, culture and kittens at a young age was such a wonderful thing!

It was important to Saska to incorporate an educational theme throughout her book given her love for learning, including making sure that all the ballet moves are actual moves.  All the illustrations are hand drawn by Saska, art being another passion of Saska’s.

This is Saska’s first book.