10 Ballet Dancers is a sweet counting book about a delightfully diverse ballet class. Written by Amanda Malek-Ahmadi, the rhyming is sing-songy and fun. The ending has a surprise twist that was quite charming.

The illustrations, by Kathrine Gutkovskiy, are lovely, with a tremendous amount of character put into each little dancer.

Excellent for parents and kids alike, especially those with a particular love of ballet.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Small-Tooth-Dog Publishing Group for the ARC!

A lovely children’s book about a surprise in a ballet class. the illustrations are absolutely splendid and delightful.

I personally really love ballet so going through this book was very enjoyable.

The author and the illustrator did a fantastic job.

My last school was ballet obsessed and this book would be very popular with the pre-K classes. The surprise at the end, going from two to zero, was a clever twist on a popular and well-known formula, and the birthday party at the end was sweet. The illustrations were so-so. A perfectly serviceable book.

This picture book is beautiful and combines counting skills with an introduction to ballet terms. While the illustrations show what that ballet move may look like, the glossary provides the reader with a pronunciation guide and short translation of the phrase. Truly such a cute book.

I requested to review this book to see if it would be a good fit for a family member who is a young ballet dancer. I will def be on the look out for this book as a potential gift! It is nicely illustrated and depicts a good storyline.

Omg!!!! That's so freaking cute!!!! And I was learning to count all over again!

This would be the second time this week because I just learnt counting again while giving out a list in my blog.

And this one is so apt with all the ballet terms. Yes, I am never too old for learning stuffs. And yes, the glossary at the end of the picture book is quite helpful!

I love the illustration and the subtle colour choices.

I actually love the concept of celebrating the teacher and the positive vibes surrounding the characters.

Thanks NetGalley for the copy.

I always love finding a new ballet picture book that actually uses terminology correctly and depicts the dancers’ anatomy more or less accurately. This book already appeals to me for that reason, especially because the female dancers’ pointe shoe ribbons are tied properly! I also really like the artistic style. The dancers are drawn with precise lines evidently drawn in ink, while the background is more abstract without clearly defined lines. I’m guessing it’s watercolor. It’s clearly a spacious, brightly lit studio with huge windows and a very shiny floor, but the focus is on the dancers. This would be a great book for kids who take ballet and will recognize the terminology, but it would also be a great book for a ballet-themed storytime intended to introduce kids to dance. My only complaint is that the ABB rhyme scheme feels a bit weird.

I'm totally in love with this book!
It's a book for young dancers, with a lot of steps to watch and learn, a glossary, and beautiful illustrations to enjoy.
I love the last part with the surprise, it's so sweet.. I'm a ballet teacher and I can feel the love of the students for her teacher.
I also love the diversity in the classes, colors, bodies... I think any child could feel related to the book.
Thank you so much to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

I didn't particularly care for the illustrations in this book. Also, this probably wouldn't hold the interest of any child who hasn't taken ballet as technical terms used in it are littered throughout the book before being defined in a glossary at the end of the book.

I thought that this book was lovely and a great addition to any young ballet dancers out there. I was a little mixed with what the age range would be for the book as generally the children that can do these moves and know the names will know how to count to ten but it is still a nice touch and I liked the glossary of terms at the end too. The mix of genders and ethnic backgrounds too to show diversity and the images are lovely – it is 3.5 stars from me for this one, rounded up to 4 stars for Goodreads and Amazon

"!0 Ballet Dancers" by Amanda Malek-Ahmadi is targeted to a very specific audience: kids that enjoy ballet. If you have a little ballerina on your hands, then this book would make a very cute gift or addition to a childhood library. It was a counting book that started from 10 and went down, so math skills were incorporated. I appreciated that it wasn't just a cutesy ballet book, but rather introduced different ballet steps and techniques.In fact, at the end of the book there is a section that shows different dance steps such as pas de chat, pique, tour jetes, and etc. and a picture of a ballerina performing that step beside it. Great, introductory book about ballet concepts for young readers.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of "10 Ballet Dancers" in exchange for an honest review.

10 Ballet Dancers is a beautifully illustrated ballet variation on “10 Little Monkeys.” The watercolor illustrations are delicate like a ballerina, and I enjoyed the variety of terminology and glossary that makes this book a great introduction for little ballerina girls and boys learning to count. The choice of words make the flow of reading a little jarring at times, and I struggled with the glossary a bit in the back. I wish it would show a diagram of the movement for children to learn.

Overall, the book was enjoyable and I would highly recommend it to families, especially those with an interest in dance.

Thank you to NetGalley, The Small-Tooth-Dog Publishing Group, and Amanda Malek-Ahmadi for an advance copy of the book to review. #10BalletDancers #NetGalley

3 1/2 stars. The art work is good and story appeals to kids. This is similar to the 'Five little monkeys' or 'There were 10 in the bed' rhymes for the tiny tots. This would be a fascinating read for young minds learning counting , and also they would be aware of ballet and movements.

Overall I recommend the book for parents who wish to read to their kids. The drawings are clear and bright and would attract the little ones.

Countdown with the ballet students from 10-1 to learn all about the life of a ballerina.

This book is so cute. I was a ballet student for years before I knew the technical terms for some of these moves. This little book does double teaching duty. It’s great practice for counting, but also for learning ballet terms, which are all in French, so add foreign language to small skills your kiddos can learn and practice with this book.

The prose has a nice cadence to it, and the artwork is super cute as well. It made me a little nostalgic for my own dancing days, and as my niece is now a tiny ballerina, I’d love to read this with her and have her demonstrate some of the positions and moves in the book.

It’s out in October, so if you’re looking for something to liven up story time, encourage little ones to get up and dance along, keep an eye out for this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy!

I adored this children's book! The moment I started reading it, it took me back to my childhood ballet days, and I know I would have LOVED this book as a child. I would have been so smitten with the illustrations, counting down, the ballet terms...everything! I was also thrilled to find the Glossary at the end of the book as well, since it did occur to me while I was reading that someone may not know what these words meant or how to pronounce them--and then the Glossary appeared! And even those illustrations and the layout were wonderful.

I enjoyed the story as well -- yes, it's appealing as a book to learn numbers and counting, but it also can teach ballet and dance, the story of friendship, and the idea of how to express care for a teacher or others around you.

Perhaps my only complaint would be that I wish a person of size was represented within the illustrations; but the other representation and diversity in the characters was wonderful, showing all genders, short and tall, different skin colors, hair colors, hair lengths...there will certainly be a character every little reader will find themselves in.

10 Ballet Dancers is a counting book but not done in the traditional sense. I loved the ending and wasn't expecting it at all. Ballet books for children are some of my favorites as my 5 year old loves to dance. I love the diversity of the dancers with all of the different body types. You can't go wrong with how informative it is with the breakdown of the ballet terms and how to pronounce them. Overall a fantastic children's book.

Beautifully illustrated, I love the refections in the floor. I also like the way all the children, boys and girls, are different shapes and sizes. A good introduction to the different ballet poses. There is a glossary of the french terms at end with helpful pronunciation. The book starts with ten dancers and counts down to none. A nice idea but the narrative doesn’t flow. If the count down prose was dropped and characters had just ‘exited stage left’ this would freed up the narrative possibilities. Any small child how loves ballet would love this book.

Review to come to Blog/Goodreads on October 2nd.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just love books about ballet. See the dances, the outfits, the chemistry between dancers, and more. I so wish I could do ballet.

This book is a counting book. We start with 10 dancers and end with... something I definitely didn't expect! I love that surprise at the end, not only with how we got to one, but also what happens afterwards. Well done author!

Each page a dancer dances away. I just love how cute that was done and how kids will learn counting in a delightful way. Not only will they learn the numbers but they will also learn some new ballet moves and see them happening.

I definitely LOVE the diversity in the ballet dancers. Quite often the dancers are girls and generally they all look a bit the same, but in this book we got people from all sizes and various colours. It made me smile.

In the end we also have a glossary with the terms along with some images for a couple of them. I loved that this one was added!

The art wasn't always my favourite (due to the faces), but I still liked it.

All in all, a fun counting book featuring ballet. Recommended.

My daughter has been dancing ballet since she was 3-years old. This season, she decided she wants to take a break to focus on gymnastics, but I see in her heart that she still has a love for it. Nothing better than a ballet book to end the night on. I'm also trying to teach my son how to recognize numbers, so I thought this book could reach both kids for different reasons!

This story is told in a countdown fashion. There are 10 kids in a ballet class, but one by one, they leave the class with different ballet moves, leaving only the teacher behind for a nice surprise. There is a page in the back of the book that provides the pronunciation for each ballet move mentioned in the book.

My 5-year old daughter's review: If there are ballerina's dancing in a story, there is a good chance she will love it. She corrected my pronunciation on many of the ballet terms, and proceeded to stand up after every dancer left the room to show me what the move was. I asked her how she felt about the book, and she said "it was good! Can I dance now?" Motivation to dance? Where was this book when I needed her to practice for her last recital!

My 2-year old son's review: While my son loves dancing, he didn't seem as excited by the pictures of people dancing, as much as my daughter did. He enjoyed shouting out numbers, but he quickly realized he was in over his head and didn't know a lot of the numbers. He just started shouting "two!" not realizing he would have to wait until the end of the book to get to his magic number. Oh well. Can't win over every kid.

Mom Review: As I read to my kids, I noticed that the writing felt a bit clunky. There was a line that didn't rhyme with anything, to be followed by 2 lines that did rhyme. It threw the rhythm of the story off, as you expected each line to flow a bit better. The last line of the book was there, and it felt like there should be one more to rhyme. It ended a bit abruptly. My daughter kept staring at me as though I was reading it wrong. I can't be trusted since I couldn't pronounce the dance moves after all.

The illustrations though were beautiful and captured the dancers with each move. She soaked those pictures in, and those helped remind her of what dance move she could do. Or try to do before crashing into her brother, or a dog, or just fall on the floor giggling.

I would give this book 3 out of 5 book stacks, but my daughter wanted to give more. We agreed to give 4 out 5!

This colorful and engaging read is perfect for fans of ballet and dance. The countdown with different ballet terms was quick and informative.