by Swapna Reddy
For Reuben
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2020 by Swapna Reddy
Cover art and interior illustrations copyright © 2020 by Binny Talib
Ballet Bunnies #3: Ballerina Birthday excerpt text copyright © 2020 by Swapna Reddy. Cover and interior illustrations copyright © 2020 by Binny Talib.
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Originally published in paperback by Oxford University Press, Oxford, in 2020.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 9780593304952 (pbk.) — ISBN 9780593304969 (lib. bdg.) — ebook ISBN 9780593304976
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Contents
Cover
Dedication
Copyright
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Basic Ballet Moves
Glossary of Ballet Terms
Excerpt from Ballet Bunnies #3: Ballerina Birthday
About the Author and Illustrator
Miss Luisa’s School of Dance was surprisingly noisy when Millie turned up for her ballet lesson. The usual buzz of students hurrying to lessons and the plinking of the piano in the nearby studio were drowned out today by overexcited dancers shouting to be heard.
Millie squeezed through the crowd gathered in the hallway and headed for the studio ahead of her classmates. She checked that no one had followed her before she hurried inside and over to the curtained stage. She knew exactly who could tell her what was going on at Miss Luisa’s School of Dance.
“Millie!” Fifi squealed. Millie clambered onto the stage and scooped up the tiny bunny hopping toward her.
The rest of the Ballet Bunnies—Dolly, Pod, and Trixie—were all sitting by an overturned teacup table, finishing their breakfast.
“What’s going on?” Millie asked, turning and pointing at the crowded hallway.
“Isn’t it thrilling?” Dolly cried. She pirouetted toward Millie. “There’s going to be a gala performance!”
Millie looked confused. True, in front of her were four talking bunnies—well, three talking bunnies, to be accurate. Trixie had balled herself up and was lying under the soft fabric of a discarded tutu. She was snoring gently. But it wasn’t the talking bunnies that confused Millie.
“What’s a gala performance?” she asked.
“Dolly!” Pod said, pulling on his long ears. “I thought we weren’t going to say anything until Millie heard the news from Miss Luisa.”
“I don’t care. I’m too excited!” Dolly danced in circles and then grabbed Pod’s paw and spun him toward Millie. “The gala performance is only the biggest ballet show of the year!” she exclaimed. “Everyone at Miss Luisa’s School of Dance is involved!”
“Including you, Millie,” Fifi said, nudging her, then jumping down to join Pod and Dolly.
A wide grin stretched across Millie’s face. “I’ll be dancing onstage?” she said. “In front of an audience—like a real ballet dancer?”
Fifi and Dolly nodded excitedly while Pod peered around the curtain at the studio.
“Millie, quick!” he whispered. “Your class is about to start!”
“We’re going to be in a show!” Samira screeched as soon as she spotted Millie.
“I know!” Millie shrieked back at her friend.
“How did you find out?” Samira said. “I was looking for you in the hallway when Miss Luisa revealed the surprise, but I didn’t see you.”
“Oh, I heard it from a little bunny,” Millie said, fiddling with the hem of her tutu.
“You are silly, Millie.” Samira smiled and shook her head.
“Well, you haven’t heard everything,” their classmate Amber said smugly, joining the duo. “We’re going to be dancing with props.” She glared down her nose at Millie. “I know because my mom has arranged it all.”
Before the girls could say anything else, Miss Luisa tapped the wooden barre, calling the class to attention.
“As I announced earlier,” she said, “this year’s performance will be The Garden.”
Samira grabbed Millie’s arm, and they grinned at each other.
“The oldest students will be our swans, the little kids will be the seedlings, and you will all be the flower fairies,” Miss Luisa explained.
The entire class took a huge breath. Flower fairies! Amber even gave Millie an excited smile before remembering that they weren’t friends. Then she dropped her beam to a frown.
“All of us, Miss Luisa?” she asked. “Some of us haven’t been dancing as long as the others, and I’m worried they’ll bring the performance down.” She looked deliberately at Millie so that everyone knew exactly who she was talking about.
“Yes, Amber,” Miss Luisa replied. “The whole class will be performing together, so you must work as a team.”
Miss Luisa pointed to a box in the corner of the studio.
“You will all take a watering can from the box. You cannot lose it, so please remember which is yours.”
Everyone charged over to the box to pick their favorite colors. As Millie reached down for the blue can, Amber snatched it out of her hands.
“But you already have the pink one,” Millie said, staring at the two watering cans in Amber’s hands.
“Well, now I want the blue,” snapped Amber, dropping the pink one so that it clattered on the wooden floor.
“Be careful with your props,” Miss Luisa scolded. Millie picked up the abandoned watering can.
She hugged the pink watering can close to her chest and carried it over to the middle of the studio to join her class. Millie didn’t mind all that much that it wasn’t the blue can—she was too excited about the show. Not even Amber could bring her down today. Besides, pink was one of her favorite colors too.
“First, we will practice without the props,” instructed Miss Luisa.
Everyone placed their watering cans off to the side. Then Miss Luisa talked the class through the ballet routine. Millie, who had been dancing for a few weeks now, found herself picking up t
he steps quickly. She had a bunny or four to thank for the extra lessons she’d had.
But when the students picked up their props, they all forgot their steps and soon found themselves in a knot of arms, legs, and cans. Even Will, the best dancer in the class, dropped his watering can a few times.
“It’s a good thing there’s no water in this,” Samira said. She untangled her arms from Millie’s and sent her prop crashing to the floor for the millionth time.
“Samira, please remember you are a flower fairy, not a frog,” Miss Luisa said, straightening Samira’s back. “I want to see graceful and light footwork.”
Samira swung her watering can out and pirouetted straight into the barre. She collapsed in a heap on the floor before pretending to take a long drink from the spout. Even Miss Luisa giggled.
“At least be a graceful frog,” she said, laughing and pulling Samira to her feet.
By the end of the lesson, Millie was proud of herself and the rest of the class. They had worked hard together and looked like a real ballet troupe. Millie and Amber had even managed to steer clear of each other and avoid an argument.
As an end-of-class treat, Miss Luisa showed them their costumes for the show. The girls each had a tutu made up of fabric petals that matched the color of their watering can. The boys got to choose their tights and leotard sets, each embellished with flowers. Millie ran her hand over the velvet-soft petals on her pink tutu. She couldn’t wait for the gala performance.
Millie spent the entire week rehearsing as much as she could. She tottered around the house with her watering can. She practiced in the park. She spun around the dinner table. At bedtime, when her feet ached and she couldn’t stifle the yawns, she made herself lift up her chin and stretch her neck. She was determined to be the most graceful flower fairy at Miss Luisa’s School of Dance.
On the day of the dress rehearsal, Millie made sure she was the first to arrive at the school. She wanted to pick up her costume early, but she also wanted to tell the Ballet Bunnies how hard she had been working on the routine.
“Please take us to the theater with you,” Fifi said as Millie gathered her up with the rest of the bunnies in a ginormous hug. “We can come to the dress rehearsal, stay over, and be ready for the real performance!”
“Oh, bunny fluff! Please, Millie!” Dolly insisted. “Last time we traveled to the theater, we had to hide in the box of spare ballet slippers, and Trixie kept disappearing into the shoes.”
“Will you be okay staying overnight at the theater?” Millie asked.
“Of course!” said Pod. “We wouldn’t want to miss your big moment.”
“We’ve packed our overnight bags,” Trixie added.
There, stacked neatly in a row, were four tiny squares of silk that had been rolled up and pinned to make bunny-sized sleeping bags.
Millie opened her backpack, and Fifi, Dolly, Pod, and Trixie hopped in with their bags. Holding her costume, Millie carefully carried her friends to the bus, where Samira had saved a seat for her.
The theater was a short drive from the school. As the bus pulled up to the theater, Millie felt the bubble of excitement in her belly grow. Both she and Samira had been humming the flower fairies song the whole way, but they fell silent when the bus stopped. There were grand columns at the entrance, paved marble tiles, and huge oak doors with twirly golden handles.
Miss Luisa got out first to pull open the theater doors. The children walked in pairs through the long red-carpeted lobby.
“Off you go,” Millie whispered to the bunnies as she dropped to the floor, pretending to tie her shoelaces.
One by one, the bunnies snuck out of Millie’s backpack and scampered behind the popcorn stand and out of sight.
Millie followed her classmates through the lobby and into the theater hall. Rows and rows of red velvet seats lined the hall—all the way from the front of the stage to the doors at the back of the room. As Millie looked up at the intricately painted ceiling, she could also see seats at different levels, reaching high up to the top.
On performance night, many of the seats would be filled. And each and every person in those seats would be watching Millie.
The dancers climbed onstage and split off into their groups. The older students left to practice offstage, while Millie’s class and the little kids were guided to the dressing rooms to try on their costumes.
Millie got ready quickly, then stood on the stage and looked out at the sea of chairs. The excited bubble in her tummy was disappearing fast, and a swirl of knots was growing instead. When Miss Luisa called her class to rehearse, Millie’s throat was dry and her feet seemed frozen to the floor like solid ice blocks.
“What are you doing?” Amber hissed at her. “Miss Luisa has called us.”
Millie opened her mouth to reply, but the words did not come. As the flower fairies song started to boom from the speakers, Millie found herself forcing her legs to move in time with her classmates—but she was concentrating so hard on not dropping her watering can that she was in plié when she should have been in relevé, and in relevé when she should have been in plié.
“Millie,” Miss Luisa said gently. “Why don’t we take a break and practice offstage for a while?”
Millie nodded and ran as fast as she could away from the stage and the rows and rows of seats.
Samira followed her. “Wait for me,” she whispered nervously behind Millie.
But before Millie could say a word, the rest of their class had joined them.
“You’d better not mess up like that on the night of our performance,” Amber snarled. “You’re going to make us all look bad.”
Millie frowned. Her stomach churned. She didn’t want to make anyone look bad. What was she going to do?
As the little kids took to the stage to rehearse their seedling routine, Millie changed out of her costume, found a quiet corner behind the curtains, and hid from her class.
She had rehearsed all week. She knew the routine by heart. She could probably perform it in her sleep! But when she looked out at the rows of seats and imagined them filled with hundreds of people, her feet refused to move.
“Millie?” a tiny voice called.
Millie looked down and recognized Dolly’s familiar silky coat.
“Oh, Dolly,” she said, relieved. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Come on,” Dolly said. “I’ll show you where we’ve set up camp.”
Millie followed Dolly around the back of the stage toward a set of shelves. The bunnies had made themselves at home. A small thread of lights lit up a cozy shelf. On the shelf were two popcorn trays for beds. They were lined with soft silk and velvet from a discarded costume.
“Didn’t Pod do well?” Fifi said as Millie peered in at their hideaway.
“He did,” Millie said, smiling at the clever bunny.
On another shelf, Millie saw that the rest of the silk and velvet had been used to create curtains, which had been tied back with gold ribbon from the tops of the candy bags that were sold in the lobby.
“What’s this?” Millie asked.
Fifi pirouetted between the curtains and leapt high before landing in a curtsy. “This is our theater,” she said with a bow. “We’re putting on our own ballet show tonight for the theater mice, and they’re going to perform a play for us!”
“That sounds cool!” Millie exclaimed. “I wish I could see it.”
“Our gala performance is called The Ballet Bunny Garden, and we’re all going to be Ballet Bunny flower fairies,” Fifi explained.
“I’m going to be the pink one, just like you, Millie,” Dolly added, holding up a pink cupcake liner that she had turned into a tutu.
Millie grinned, but her smile disappeared when Dolly asked about her rehearsal.
“I don’t know what happen
ed,” she said sadly. “I rehearsed nonstop all week, but everything went wrong today. I’m so worried about making a mistake that it’s making me make lots of mistakes!”
“Oh, Millie, you’re nervous about performing onstage,” Fifi said gently.
“I understand, Millie,” Dolly said. “I feel the same way about dancing for the mice. I’m worried I’ll forget my steps too.”
“But you’re so good, Dolly!” Millie said. “You have nothing to be nervous about. You always look like you are having so much fun when you’re dancing. Even if you do make a mistake, no one will notice because they’ll be having so much fun with you.”
Dolly smiled at Millie. “You’re right,” she said slowly. “I can only do my best. I should just try and enjoy it and stop worrying.”
“Exactly,” Fifi agreed, nodding along. Then she, Dolly, and Pod smiled up at Millie.
Millie smiled back. Even if she made a small mistake, everyone would see how much she loved dancing too.
Why hadn’t she told herself that earlier?
“Are you ready, Millie?” Trixie asked, joining Dolly and Fifi.
