This is a book about a girl named Ella who is in ballet. She really admires another girl in her class named Jan who knows lots of ballet moves. Ella tries to do some of the moves and fails and wants to give up but Jan tells her not to and to try again. Ella tries again and succeeds this time. ( )

I enjoyed this book and its “big idea”. I decided to pick this book to widen my horizon. I am always grabbing baseball books or history but instead I picked a book about a girl in gymnastics. The story is about a character named Ella. She packs her bag and heads to gymnastic practice. The character has a positive attitude shown by the great illustrations. She is smiling throughout the book, heading to the gym, watching her friends and getting up on the balance beam. She falls off the balance beam and she tries to give up. When she falls off in front of her friends and says “I give up” they don’t let her. There isn’t much development of the character but you can tell from lines like “I will try again” that she’s a strong individual. She continues to mess up but that doesn’t stop her from getting back up and trying again. The point of view is first person told by the little girl Ella. It’s a good perspective cause you get to see her view of what is happening in the book. You get to see her emotion about failure when she says “Down I go, I give up”. The language is simple and friendly. It shows friends encouraging her to keep trying. One of the friends Jane says “Don’t give up” and it encourages her to try again. The big idea of this book is to never give up and if you see someone failing, help them get up and try again. ( )

This is a simple and sweet story about determenation. The little girl admires a fellow student in her gym class and wants to be as good as her. Upon trying she falls and loses hope, but with her friend Jan's helpful words to not give up, she trys again a succeds. This could show kids how not to give up on things so easily. With a little persistence, you can achieve for goals. ( )

This book is about a little girl who joins gymnastaics but want to quit because she cant do it as well as a the other girl. She keeps on trying until she learns how to do it.
Age: 4-6 years
Source: Pierce County Library

Try, try again. ( )