This Is It by Daria Peoples-Riley
Published: February 2019
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It’s audition day as we meet a young hopeful ballerina just outside the studio’s doors. It’s the day she’s been waiting for but you can see it in her eyes that she’s just not sure if she’s ready. Yet from deep within where her innermost dreams live emerges the resolve to go for it. That part of her that knows she was born for this moment, that she is prepared, and that she can do this. Just beyond the doors, an opportunity awaits. Get ready. “Stand up tall. Arch your back. Hold your head high. This. Is. It.”
This is the second book of Daria Peoples-Rileys’ that I’ve read. I like how she played with the text on the page, making it move and dance with the character at times. Then she wrote lines like, “The future is in your footsteps. Freedom is in your feet. Put one in front of the other, and greet your destiny,” and “Grace flows from your soul to your fingertips. And HAPPY shakes your hips.” LOVE LOVE LOVE this!
The first book of hers that I read was I Got Next (that published 7/2019). I knew then that I would enjoy This is it too. Both books are on my book order for the coming school year and will be nice additions to my K-5 library collection. Many of my students like to read books about ballerinas. They check out Misty Copeland’s Firebird all the time and I know that This is it will quickly become one of their favorites too.
Shout-Outs
Daria Peoples-Riley (Author & Illustrator) | https://www.dariapeoples.com/
Greenwillow Books
An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
https://www.greenwillowbooks.com/Borrowed from the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
Find This is It at your local indie bookstore:
This book sounds so inspirational and I agree—she’s got a way with words! LOVE that dialogue ❤
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