Clara's Dancing Feet

Very young children experience stage fright, but don't understand itand this is Clara's dilemma. She loves to dance around her homeshe just can't sit still. When her mother agrees to send her to dancing class, Clara is ecstatic, and loves all the dance accoutrements, including ballet shoes that make her feet look like ""two sugared almonds.'' But once in class, Clara gets shy, and her feet won't move. The same thing happens during the second lesson. The third lesson takes place in front of the parents, and when Clara sees her friends dancing with bright streamers, she simply has to join them, shyness forgotten. It's a believable solution to a deftly told story; Carey's exuberant pictures show a joyful Clara, who is blissfully discovering her own form of self-expression. (5-8)