Pitu le baila al mar

PreS-Gr 2–Pitu loves dancing, and she is ecstatic when she discovers ballerina Andora Lupillo’s videos online. Andora looks like Pitu and her mothers—she is curvy—and dances beautifully. After much convincing, Pitu’s mothers take her to her first ballet lessons. But while Pitu is concentrating and working hard, some of the other children begin to make fun of the way Pitu is dressed, her name, and her body. Pitu storms out of the ballet class and her mothers take her to the beach to cheer her up, where Pitu runs off and finds herself in front of crystal clear water that shows her reflection. Pitu thinks of Andora Lupillo and begins to dance, realizing that she, too, is a great ballerina. Fluid and vibrant illustrations will have readers entranced with Pitu’s world, from her beautiful home to the small town and the beach. The clear, bold Spanish text perfectly expresses character emotions and thoughts along with the range of Pitu’s conversations with her mothers and her ballet classmates. Pitu and one of her mothers are Black; her other mother, along with the majority of the characters are brown.