This is narrative history, so there is dialogue that brings the story of this ballerina to life. As an older reader, I sometimes wanted more, but young readers will be satisfied with the level of detail. The artwork is beautiful throughout.

Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage was pretty interesting. Alicia rules :) in this story about her she really shines obvsly, showing off her strengths and personality in a way that makes the story for middle graders but also for older readers too

I love how this book uses novelization and illustrations to show us the story behind a great woman, artist and performer.

Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage is an inspiring tale from Rebel Girls about an incredible ballet star. A true Prima Donna who did and does inspire many to this day.

This story is one of courage, and perseverance in the dice of true adversity. Alicia had to fight against her own body for as long as she were able so that she could continue her love of ballet. However, I have to say I found the large jumps in time were jarring in the particular book, whilst sitting understand that these books are to be a short introduction to a character, I wished that this book could have been longer so it was a little smoother as events unfold.

I would highly recommend purchasing this book if your child has an interest in either Alicia Alonso or ballet in general as a good introduction to someone who showed the world the wonder of the art. After reading it myself, I watched videos of Alicia dancing and she was a wonder to witness in her performances.

I grew up dancing and yet I'd somehow never heard of Alicia Alonso before reading this book. This was a really inspiring story and I enjoyed learning her story. The illustrations were fun and I can definitely see middle grade readers loving this!

Thank you NetGalley and Rebel Girls for gifting me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a nonfiction retelling of Alicia Alonso's life story. Alicia Alonso was a world-renowned ballerina from Cuba, performing in New York City. She was incredibly talented and successful and her story is fascinating.
This was the first book in this series that I've read and I adored it! The illustrations were beautiful, and the story flowed very nicely. I learned about Alicia's successes and failures, about her sickness and bravery to continue dancing even through the sickness, and her efforts in building a ballet school in Havana, where she grew up.
I would recommend this book to everyone who would like to hear her story!

I love the Rebel Girl books that cover multiple women and so I was really interested in a Rebel Girls book that would focus on one woman. I loved this book and was glad that I was given the opportunity to read and review it!
I hadn't really heard about Alonso before or read much about her and so this was a great introduction for me.
I would recommend it for younger readers and even I would be interested in picking it back up again.

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
The book follows Alicia Alonso as she learned to dance and her life. The book is perfect for middle-grade readers.

I love the Rebel Girls books! And this is no exception! I didn't know Alicia was sight impaired and that made this story even more inspiring! Being a professional ballerina is hard enough but add in her disability and this was a wonderful read!! I have a daughter that wants to be a ballerina so she was super into this one! I love that Rebel Girls are doing Middle Grade chapter books now!! I absolutely love this series and can't wait to read more!!

Thank you Rebel Girls and Netgalley for my review e-copy!

This is the beautiful story of a dancer, Alicia Alonso. What I enjoyed most about this story was that she had the opportunity to leave her home to grow as a dancer. She has numerous opportunities with ballet companies to show her skills and talents and eventually took this back to her hometown to train dancers. When a situation makes it harder for her to dance, Alicia finds a way to keep dance in her life.

This is a wonderful read for the young dancer in your life.

Thank you Netgalley and Rebel Girls for the opportunity to read this story.

Another inspiring story, wonderfully illustrated and not just for young girls. I learned a lot myself as I didn't know about Alicia Alonso before.

Another amazing book of the Rebel Girl Series, that highlights the life of Alicia Alonso. It's utterly inspiring to read about her life and dreams, which she achieved even though she became nearly blind. For others it would have been the end of their career but not for Alicia.

Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage is the story of the titular ballerina. This is a great chapter book that shares and celebrates the life of one of the world's best ballerinas, while also highlighting a Latina many Latinas don't know about! The delivery is effective and informative , as well as very entertaining. Rebel Girls has another hit story on their hands!! As a Latina and fan of several Rebel Girls titkes, K definitely recommend this one.

'Follow your own rhythm, and the world will dance along.'

The perfect book for my eldest daughter, who is a ballet lover! The text is simple to follow and the illustrations are beautiful. Plus, I personally enjoyed it too as I've learnt about an incredibly resilient woman I wasn't aware of before.

The Rebel Girls series does such a fantastic job it highlighting inspiring, strong women. I hadn't heard of Alicia Alonso prior to this book, but I am so glad I got to learn about her. I am inspired by her hard work and perseverance through the difficulties she experienced with her vision. I am awestruck at her ability to overcome and flourish in what she wanted to do ever since she was young.

as with the rest of the books i had the pleasure of reading so far this book was wonderful.
i love how this book and this entire series of books gives a nice overview from start to finish of a persons life, shows the struggles and successes, shows that highs and lows in realistic ways!
wonderfully written, beautiful book!
highly recommend for any reader of any age!

This was a short story on Alicia alonso and her rise to fame through everything and how she learned to dance around loosing her eyesight and achieving her dreams of helping others to learn to dance. This book was very inspiring and I would reccomend to younger girls to inspire them to do whatever they dream to.

This was a moving and inspiring story about a girl who loved to dance and never gave up, no matter how many obstacles she faced. I was impressed by her dedication and persistence, both in learning to become a ballerina in the first place, and then relearning it all after she lost nearly all her vision and was ordered to a year (a year!) of bed rest. Her success and fame was inspirational, especially how she considered it to be not *in spite of* her disability, but rather that her disability was immaterial to her success. That is an excellent message for young girls to take away from the story.

I highly recommend this to young girls (and boys), especially those that love to dance.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Rebel Girls for providing an early copy for review.

These books are so fun to read, yet so important for empowering young readers! I can't wait to read more of them, and would love to pick up a collection of them for my niece once she gets a little older.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This new Middle Grade series is one that you will definitely need to watch out for! Rebel Girls have come out with a fantastic new set of chapter books about women from the past who stood up for rights, fought for change and made a difference in their communities. These chapter books are about 100 pages long, and include multiple full and part page illustrations per chapter. The text is a really good size and is well spaced. The language used is relatively easy to comprehend and is written in narrative form rather than using non-fiction text features. In a way, these books are somewhere between a picture book biography and an early chapter book historical fiction. Between the pictures and the narrative text it will be much facilitate comprehension and keep readers interested. They are super cool and I can definitely think of Middle Grade (Grades 3-7) students who would love these books! There are also fun activities at the end of the book meant to empower and inspire readers to dig deeper, ask questions and learn more about the ideas in the story.

In Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage readers will learn about a world-renowned prima ballerina who impressed people all over the world with her dancing ability while being visually impaired. This is a story about perseverance, facing challenges, and the importance of the arts. I think that girls who aspire to be on stage in one form of performance art or another will enjoy this book. I also see it as being a really great inspiration for girls who have disabilities or other barriers to success.


I would highly recommend this book to parents and teachers of Middle Grade readers looking for chapter books that feature inspiring women, teach about history and science and create openings for future inquiry. I will definitely be purchasing this series when it is published so that I can add it to my classroom library! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book!