Lolly on the ice

When pale-skinned Lolly skates with only her father watching from the sidelines, she's fearless. "She jumped and glided and spun. She skated like a snowflake in the wind," Brannen writes, as crisp ink and watercolor illustrations show the child gliding on a frozen pond. But Lolly totally freezes when others catch her in action, relegating her to playing a stationary snowperson in a community skating show. After one of the show's trio of snowflake dancers is injured, the protagonist musters the courage to volunteer--and discovers that she hasn't been invisible after all. "I've seen you skating," says one of the dancers. "You're good." Donning a sparkly costume, Lolly glides into the spotlight, and she and the other snowflakes "flew over the ice together." Sometimes finding one's footing--on or off the ice--this picture book hints, is a matter of stepping forward and giving one's talents their due. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4--8. (Nov.)

A timid young athlete takes a chance. Lolly loves to ice skate. Drifting across a frozen pond, effortless as a falling snowflake, she leaps and loops with confidence as Dad cheers her on. But as comfortable as Lolly is on the ice, happy to perform for an audience of one, her knees begin to knock the moment onlookers tune in. In fact, during her audition for the big winter ice show, her performance jitters prove so powerful that she's frozen to the spot, a showing that ultimately lands her the role of a (stationary) snowman. Disappointed by the result--and dispirited by the unbecoming costume it requires--Lolly glumly prepares for the performance until one fateful rehearsal, when a member of the snowflake trio sustains a season-ending injury. With the show's biggest number now in jeopardy, Lolly knows just what to do, if she can only find the courage to act. Brannen's gently told work is a fairly straightforward tale of a youngster confronting performance anxiety. Readers similarly plagued by self-doubt will certainly find an emotional mirror here. Tan-skinned, red-haired Lolly is depicted as physically larger than her peers in Brannen's graceful, muted artwork--a fact that the author/illustrator never calls attention to in her text; refreshingly, her protagonist's insecurities aren't linked to her size. Lolly's diverse community is uniformly supportive, self-doubt her only adversary and one much more gratifying to best. Cozy and encouraging.(Picture book. 5-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.