Becoming a Ballerina: The Story of Michaela Mabinty DePrince

Ballet sustains in this lyrical homage emphasizing the early challenges that dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince (1995–2024) overcame on her path to the professional stage. As an orphaned child in Sierra Leone, DePrince takes comfort in a magazine cover featuring a ballerina. When her American adoptive mother signs her up for classes, she persists in her passion, despite wondering whether others’ view of her vitiligo, skin tone, and athletic build will keep her from becoming a ballerina—then “holds her head up and pirouettes into... a beloved princess.” Duchess’s carefully shaded digital renderings work in lockstep with the text, employing elegant curlicues to suggest movement. Using dance-filled language, Obuobi spotlights DePrince’s persistence through recurring lines that describe the sentiments—“strength,” “joy,” and “faith”—provided by ballet, yielding a portrait that moves in more ways than one. An author’s note concludes. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)