Magic Ballerina 19 – Jade and the Enchanted Wood

Darcey Bussell's Jade and the Enchanted Wood is a magical ballet story for 5 year olds about a street dancer who isn't at all sure ballet is for her.

What happens

Jade hardly ever walks anywhere. She skips and clicks her fingers and dances down the road instead. Street dance is her thing.

So when a mystery parcel turns up on her doorstep with red ballet shoes in it, she's puzzled. The note tells her to try Madame Za-Za's classes just down the road. Jade isn't convinced. Hadn't she just told a girl that ballet was all silly little tutus?

She goes anyway (just for one lesson, she tells herself). It does not start well. All those rules! Point this, straighten that. In the end Jade snaps and does a moonwalk in the middle of the class. Who hasn't wanted to do that at some point?

Then, on a quick trip to the loo, her red shoes start to glow. Jade is whisked away to Enchantia, the land where characters from the ballets live. A white cat in a golden waistcoat and top hat is waiting for her.

The trouble is King Rat. He's planning a funfair right where everyone goes to dance, and he'll throw them all out to get it. That includes the shy sylphs, whose dancing makes the whole wood glow with soft white light. Jade secretly thinks a funfair sounds great. But then King Rat captures the White Cat, and she has to decide what she's really made of.

What's lovely about Jade is that she says exactly what she thinks. Sometimes a bit too fast! She rolls her eyes, she gets cross, and she feels bad about it afterwards. Younger readers who find rules hard to swallow will recognise her straight away.

There's a little bit of peril for this shelf. King Rat is very nasty, waves a sword about and has guards with lassos, and Jade has to hide from him in a honeysuckle bush. It never gets too scary, and the sylphs' clever plan gives her a chance to be brave in her own way.

It's number 19 in the Magic Ballerina series, but it's Jade's very first visit to Enchantia. The White Cat explains everything, so it's a perfect place to meet her.

What to read next

If they fall for Jade, she's back in Jade's next trip to Enchantia. It's the White Cat's birthday, a party is being planned, and guests keep going missing.