Degas and the Little Dancer: A Story About Edgar Degas

Laurence Anholt

Barrons, 1996 - Juvenile Fiction - 32 pages

Many years ago, Marie hoped to be a famous ballerina, but because her family had too little money for lessons she began modeling at the ballet school. The painter for whom she modeled was the artist, Edgar Degas. As Degas' figure of The Little Dancer took shape, Marie began to feel sympathy for the bad-tempered artist. When the sculpture was finished, thousands of art lovers came to see the statue, making Marie the most famous dancer of all. Here is an exquisite introduction to the life of a great nineteenth-century French artist, with beautiful impressionistic illustrations and reproductions of Degas' own work.

What people are saying

Review: Degas and the Little Dancer Degas and the Little Dancer (Anholt's Artists)

User Review  - Susan - Goodreads

Beautiful mix of artwork and photos of original sculpture as usual for this author/illustrator and series, but the story does not flow from page to page - seems to be a regular flaw for this author ...

About the author

Laurence Anholt spent his early childhood in Holland where he developed a passion for Art. Before he attended school for his passion, Anholt worked as a Hotel-Night-Receptionist, a Carpenter, a Schoolteacher and an Art Lecturer, among various other odd jobs. Anholt studied painting for eight years and earned a Master's Degree from the Royal Academy of Art in London. He met his wife and partner Catherine at the Falmouth School of Art in Cornwall. The first books the husband and wife team published were about a small pig called Truffles, in 1983 for their oldest daughter, Claire. Laurence writes all of their books and Catherine has illustrated about half of them. Laurence also illustrates his own books, in particular the bestselling series about great artists. Their work has won many awards, including the Nestlé Smarties Gold Award, the Kids' Club Network Award, the Right Start Toy and Book Award three times, the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award twice, the English Association Four to Eleven Awards twice, the US Children's Media Award and the CCBC Choices 2001 twice. They have over 70 children's titles in print. Anholt is also a public speaker and has made appearances at the European Council of International Schools Conference, The UK's Northern Children's Book Festival, the Cheltenham Festival, the Edinburgh Festival and the Hay-on-Wye Festival. He also helped to judge the prestigious Nestlé Smarties Award.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Degas and the Little Dancer: A Story About Edgar Degas
• Author: Laurence Anholt
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Barrons, 1996
• ISBN: 0812065832, 9780812065831
• Length: 32 pages
• Subjects: Juvenile Fiction / Art & Architecture; Juvenile Fiction / Biographical / European; Juvenile Fiction / Performing Arts / Dance; Juvenile Fiction / Performing Arts / General; Juvenile Nonfiction / Art / General