CALLIE CAT, ICE SKATER

Callie lives for winter and skating. While friends beg her to play games or make necklaces, she prefers to skate during the day, by moonlight and whenever she can. But then her friends learn about the Honeybrook Ice Skating Contest. Prizes include a free pass to the ice rink, clothes and a limo ride; her friend Liza tells her she’d be a “banana” not to enter. Callie arrives for the contest with friends and parents who tell her good luck and do your best. Watercolor and pen show the spins, the details and expressions of all types of animals. Hues are as bright, fresh and cool as a frozen pond in winter. Callie’s friends cheer and her parents are proud of her, but Callie discovers what the “melting sweetness” of skating and skating alone brings to her. The text makes her understanding of the experience a page turner to the very end. A rare gem of a lesson in today’s competitive, award-seeking society. (Picture book. 4-6)