cover image LILA BLOOM

LILA BLOOM

Alexander Stadler, . . FSG/Foster, $16 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-374-34474-0

Reluctant ballerinas may sympathize with this title character, who exercises and exorcises a bad mood in dance class. After a difficult morning and a "try harder" mark on a book report, Lila needs a target for her wrath. "I despise ballet," she complains to her Aunt Celeste. "Plié this. Grand jeté that.... How I wish I could quit!" In the studio, "her développés were underdeveloped," and instructor Madame Vera (resembling Bullwinkle 's Natasha with her gray skin and green eyeshadow) tells Lila she's "dancing like an old noodle." Lila works harder to prove herself, only to find that her anger dissolves: "It stopped mattering to her whether Madame was looking or was not." Stadler, creator of the Beverly Billingsly books, depicts a strong-willed girl manipulated by knowing adults (but for her own good). Aunt Celeste "hid[es] a small smile" when Lila wants to quit, and Madame pretends not to notice Lila's struggles to perform. Ultimately, however, Lila herself realizes a love of ballet and requests two lessons a week. The author draws Lila in a clotted black-ink line that seems unsuited to fluidity but that convincingly conveys the girl's changing emotions. His unsteady close-ups retain a childlike quality while his compact figures suggest Degas's ballet-themed art or Peter Sís's Ballerina! The endpapers, in which Lila strikes poses with finesse and delight, may well move readers to imitation. Ages 4-8. (May)