A fun moral about being your own individual person, this has a girl just not fitting in at a ballet class, however much she wants to put all her energy into it. The exercise to pretend to dance with an imaginary animal makes people think she's hoofing it around the floor with a dinosaur, which is all very well as one is just about to make itself known to her… Easily read, this has a lively presentation, and doesn't over-labour the sentiment of 'be yourself' or 'there's a place for everyone and for everyone a place', even if the lesson here is to ALWAYS dance with a dinosaur, if that's what you want. Irresponsible I know, but that's what books these days like to tell us. A healthy four stars.

"Peri LOVES dancing and dinosaurs. So when she tags along to her sister's ballet class and the teacher asks everyone to pretend they are dancing with a beautiful creature, Peri knows the perfect partner. But Miss Tippytoes is furious! "Never dance with a dinosaur!" she says."

Peri's spirit reminded me so much of one of my granddaughters, so I knew she would loved this book and, guess what, she did. We read it again and again, laughed and gasped at some of the antics.
Including dinosaurs made it a great read for my grandson too, so a double whammy of a book.

A really fun picture book about dancing to your own beat. Kids will absolutely love the analogies of dancing with different animals and dancing with a dinosaur is a winner for both boys and girls. Great, dynamic illustrations and a relatable story for little ones with a strong message.

This story is a tale of working out just where you fit it. Just because your talent doesn’t lie in one area, it doesn’t mean you won’t be great at something else.
My son was not too engaged with this one at the start of the book and the illustrations just didn’t grab him until the dinosaur appeared. He liked the dinosaur and the adventure he went on but I honestly can’t see this being one of the books we reach for all the time. However all children are very different and this may suit someone else much more.

We read Never Tickle a Tiger by the same duo some years ago, and if you liked that book, this works in a similar vein, with excellent art work, hilarious scenes and situations, and an outrageous middle.
Both books are a 4-star-read in my opinion, due to the lack of a beat or two between the middle and the end, but my child finds them 5-star reads, hence I am taking into account the target audience’s word here. 5 stars.

Thank you so much to Bloomsbury Children’s Books and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Peri loves to dance all day and night, but when she takes her sisters ballet class she learns she isn’t suited to it. Then a dinosaur emerges and the two of them go dancing and destroying everything.

This was so hilarious, so whimsical and unexpected. I really enjoyed reading this book, seeing everything that Peri was getting up too and all the chaos and destruction that she and the dinosaur did as the two of them went dancing.

It was so sweet that she tried to take part in her sisters dance class, at least she tried to see if she could dance softly, but it wasn’t her personality at all. The illustrations were really wonderful to look at seeing the students all dancing with a different animal, and then seeing the dinosaur as the destruction he made was so much fun to look at.

Peri likes to dance so she joins her sister Maggie’s ballet class- a place of calm and grace.

Miss Tippytoes wants her students to move beautifully but for Peri this is a challenge and the teacher tells her not to dance in her own special way.

Her joy of dance deflated for the first time ….until a dinosaur appears from a toilet cubicle and they create their own dance moves

This is a lovely story about finding where you fit in ; recognising individual joy and not curbing passion

Pamela Bouchart’s story has comedy and a good message for young readers.
Marc Boutavant’s illustrations are brilliant adding to the entertainment .

A winner for KS1/EYFS and lovely bedtime read

I read this book in bed with my daughter last night and we absolutely loved it!

The illustrations are lovely and add so much to the story, they really bringing it to life!

The story is great, well written and it has such a great flow - I was easy to follow and she loved reading the story to me as she could then log it in her reading journal for school.

It is 5 stars from me for this one - very highly recommended and a fun read!