CLORINDA

A rotund farm animal with a big personality and a yen to dance heads for the Big City. Sound familiar? Unlike Olivia, however, not only is Clorinda a cow, but she pays some dues on her way to a triumphant debut—and in the end learns to work within her limitations. After much weary auditioning and table-waiting, Clorinda finally joins a corps de ballet, but her joy lasts only until her first leap into a partner’s arms brings both crashing down. Though astonished to hear the audience applauding her effort, Clorinda heads sadly back to the farm. Is that the end? Not at all: she opens a dancing school and creates her own troupe. Kinerk’s verse gambols merrily along, and in full-bleed illustrations that extend to the endpapers, Kellogg’s costumed dancers, human and livestock both, likewise cavort across the pages with characteristic verve. Children expecting a Disneyfied happy-ever-after may take the point unwillingly, but should notice that Clorinda never abandons her dream, even after coming to realize that it’s not going to work out exactly the way she had hoped. (Picture book. 8-10)