Through the words you can feel the tremble of desire, the longing for a different life and then the drive to learn and perform. Snyder’s poetry is just as delicate and strong as Pavlova herself. The book goes all the way through to her death, where she still longed to perform and dance until the very end. She became the most famous ballerina of all time, helped by her tireless work to bring dance and music to those who had never experienced it. Her body was considered all wrong for ballet, since she was so thin and not athletically built.

At age 10, she was admitted and studied dance. She auditioned twice for the Imperial Ballet School, turned down the first time because she was too young. Then her mother takes her to the ballet one night and Anna’s life is transformed by a desire to dance. It begins with her childhood where she grew up poor, the daughter of a laundress in Russia. This is a poetic and radiant look at the life of Anna Pavlova, prima ballerina. Recommended to young ballet dancers and enthusiasts, and to admirers of Julie Morstad's artwork.

Tastes vary, of course, so other readers might feel differently, but for me this was stronger visually than textually, and my star rating is more for Morstad than Snyder. This wasn't entirely satisfactory to me, as I would have preferred a more detailed main narrative, paired with these beautiful illustrations. The narrative, on the other hand, was less informative, and more impressionistic, telling its subject's story only in the broadest sense, and filling in more details in the afterword. Not unexpectedly, I found it a gorgeous book, visually speaking, and thought the mixed media artwork was superb. Eventually, after some delay, she does attend ballet school, and quickly rises to become one of the world's most famous dancers.Īs someone who was familiar with Pavlova's name but not her life story, I picked up Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova with some interest, particularly as I have enjoyed other works illustrated by Morstad. Inspired by a trip to the ballet as a young girl, Anna dreams of becoming a dancer herself, always attuned to the music of the world around her. American author Laurel Snyder and Canadian illustrator Julie Morstad join forces in this lovely picture-book about Anna Pavlova, the celebrated Russian prima ballerina.

Swan by Laurel Snyder