My Friend Maya Loves to Dance

An unseen narrator describes her friend Maya's love of dance, ballet, jazz, and more. Maya loves her costumes, music, and all the beauty and movement incorporated in dance. There are a couple things that jarred for me in this book. Most of the dance portrayed is ballet - only two spreads show Maya dancing something other than ballet, and three more spreads show her in street clothes doing undefined movements (or at least I don't recognize them as a specific dance style). But, the text suddenly pops up midway with "kente cloth is best" when describing her costumes. If it's best and her favorite, why is she dancing predominantly classical ballet? Also, the final spread which reveals that the girl in a wheelchair seen once earlier in the show more audience is the narrator and "artist" feels forced to me. It takes away the focus of the story, which should be Maya and her love of dance. I feel like those two elements were popped into the story. Other than that, this is a lovely dance book with lots of variety and will probably be popular show less

I have to admit, while reading this book I experienced mixed feelings. Although the story itself is nice, I cannot say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I say this because while I enjoyed the illustrations, I did not enjoy the plot and I did not care for the characters.

The illustrations in this book are very beautiful and were what originally drew me to the book. I really like how realistic they were, almost as if each illustration were a photograph. For example, when Maya is dancing at the recital, the lively colors from the costumes and light painted a very lifelike representation of the text. Also, I liked how the illustrations covered the entirety of each page, allowing the reader to fully immerse themselves into Maya’s world. show more For example, when we see Maya in dance class, the illustrations allow the entire page to feel and look just like the studio room.

Even though the illustrations helped guide the story, the plot itself was a feature I did not enjoy from this book. Maya is seen dancing ballet and classical styles more than any other style throughout the story, however we learn while reading that she enjoys dressing in kente cloth and dancing traditional tribal dances the best. I found this element to be confusing and think it created a poorly developed sequence in the story with lack of believability.

Similarly, this led me to not care for the characters very much. I felt as though the focus of the book was that Maya was supposed to love all forms of dance, but she never expressed her own voice, leaving a disconnect between her and the reader. Then, at the end of the story, we learn that the narrator is a friend of Maya who is paralyzed. I think that this feature was unnecessary and that it distracted from the story and from Maya.

Overall, I enjoyed the read but struggled to find a main idea other than her friends desire to see Maya dance. I think that the book is a good read and a great way to connect with someone who loves to dance like Maya does. show less

Lovely story, pleasant rhyming text. Warm, appealing illustrations.

In the book, My Friend Maya Loves to Dance, a friend talks about her friend Maya and all of the different types of dance that she does. Maya is a confident, strong young girl who enjoys ballet, tap, jazz, and her native African American dance. Her friend talks about how Maya is so confident that she never gets nervous about performing on stage and even enjoys performing in random places, such as the mall. The story ends by showing you Maya's friend watching her at a recital with a large, proud smile on her face.

Maya's friend tells about how Maya loves to dance. She is in a ballet class but loves other types of dance also. This book helps children to have appreciation for other people's gifts.

This sory is about a girl , who can't walk and she had a friend , called Maya who loved dance, she was dancing all the time,went she listened a music, she started to dance, She loved her ballet class, she danced in the hall, in the church, Maya loved all the sounds , she felt very happy to see her friend Maya dancing, and she said, dancing is magis for her and me.