Michaela DePrince - Ballerina Dreams

Text copyright 2014 by Michaela DePrince and Elaine DePrince Cover photograph copyright
2014 by Abbey Drucker Interior illustrations
copyright 2014 by Frank Morrison

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-385-75515-3 (trade) ISBN 978-0-385-75516-0 (lib. bdg.) ISBN 978-0-385-75517-7 (ebook)

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PHOTO CREDITS

American Broadcasting Companies, Inc./Peter Hopper Stone: 46

DePrince family:

Johannesburg Ballet:

Matthew Murphy and Dance Theatre of Harlem:

v3.1

To Magali Messac,
the ballerina on the cover of the magazine

It is a chilly night in December. I stand backstage wearing leg warmers and a sweatshirt, but Im still shivering.

Five minutes, Michaela! I hear. Its time for me to dance. I stretch my legs and point my toes to get them ready.

I check my tiara to make sure its not loose, and fluff out my pink tutu.

The knots in my pointe shoe ribbons are tied nice and tight. I wouldnt want them to slip off during the performance.

I peek through the stage curtains and see the eager faces of the audience. They are waiting for the ballerina to appear.

The music begins, and my heart beats fast with excitement. I fly onto the stage. I am the ballerina!

Long before I became a ballerina, I was an orphan in Sierra Leone, a country in western Africa. My parents died there in the ongoing war. I was sent to an orphanage (OR-fuh-nidge), where children without parents live.

There were twenty-seven children in the orphanage, but I was the only one with a condition called vitiligo (vih-tuh-LIE-go). The vitiligo made some of my skin lose its color. I have white spots on my brown skin.

Some of the other children laughed at my spots. They called me names, and
I often felt sad.

One girl never laughed at me. Her name was Mia, and she became my best friend. We shared a grass mat to sleep on at bedtime. We shared our rice at mealtime. Mia sang to me and told me stories. I taught Mia how to play new games.

Sometimes I would miss my parents very much, but I would not cry in front of the other children. Instead, I would sit at the orphanage gate alone and let my tears flow.

One windy day, a magazine blew down the road in front of the gate. I reached out and caught it.

A pretty picture of a woman was on the front cover of the magazine. She wore a short pink dress that stuck out around her in a circle. She had pink shoes on her feet and stood on the tips of her toes. She looked very happy.

I want to be happy and beautiful like you someday! I said to the woman in the picture as I wiped away my tears.

I showed the picture to Mia and then I folded it and hid it in my clothes. I didnt want anybody to take it away from me.

The next day, I showed my teacher the picture.

Who is this woman? What is she doing? Why is she wearing these strange pink clothes? I asked Teacher Sarah.

This woman is a famous ballerina. She is wearing a tutu and pointe shoes because she is dancing ballet, Teacher Sarah explained.

Do you think that I can be a ballerina like her someday? I asked.

You can become a ballerina, too, if you take lessons for many years, if you work hard, and if you practice every day.

Whoa! So many ifs! If I can take lessons, I will work hard. I will practice every day! I exclaimed. I want to become a ballerina.

One night, Papa Andrew, the director of the orphanage, told all of us, It is time to leave Sierra Leone. We must go to a country where there is no war. There you will meet the families who will adopt you and take you to live in America.