Asimple question—“How do you dance?”—meets resistance from one bespectacled youngster, who’s surrounded by a diverse, exuberant cast of characters displaying their signature moves in a range of settings and scenarios.

Heder perfectly captures the joy each figure finds in dance with muted watercolor-and-pencil illustrations against a white background. The serif typeface lends an authoritative air to the narrative voice’s descriptions of movement while playful hand-lettered text is sprinkled throughout to indicate characters’ responses to the “official” text. The typography also works with the book’s landscape format to emphasize the ways in which one might move—“FAST FAST FAST” in blurred italics and a drawn-out “sloooo o o o w w w w”—across a horizontal axis. The text’s organic, encouraging flow pauses at an official-looking chart that demonstrates such moves as “the swivel,” “the toodle,” and “the scoot” before taking an unexpected and delightful pirouette into the surreal: A full-bleed spread shows humans, including a dancer in a wheelchair, sharing a dimly lit dance floor (complete with disco ball) with dinosaurs, a robot, and horses. The reluctant dancer, who is not named or gendered by the text, has short dark brown hair and peachy tan skin and wears a green pullover with purple shorts and sneakers.

A gleeful, tender celebration of self-expression through movement, destined to become a favorite read-aloud. (Picture book. 3-8)

-Kirkus Review

There are so many ways to dance! You can jiggle or wiggle or stomp. You can bop or bounce or go completely nuts.

People of all ages use dance as a form of self expression. From living room dance parties to dancing for exercise, dance is a way to express creativity, enjoy music, and release tension.
Read the recently published children's picture book on this topic, then learn more at the website:
HOW DO YOU DANCE? by Thyra Heder is a picture book exploring the joy of dancing. Readers learn that dancing is a form of self expression for all ages. Dancing allows participants to enjoy creativity and humor while having fun.
DANCE RESOURCES from ARTSEDGE is a website containing dozens of teaching and learning materials related to the topic of dance such as lessons, collections, articles, videos, tips, field guides, interactives, and much more related to the topic of dance.
ARTSEDGE: DANCE RESOURCES
https://bit.ly/35cneKz
ARC courtesy of Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams. ( )

How do you dance?
Like this! Like this! Like this!

But one grumpy customer says "I don't..." Dozens of examples fill the rest of the book, and finally, the grump reveals that they do like to dance - alone!

A diverse cast includes people of all ages, genders, and abilities; a "Try Some New Moves!" spread shows funny moves like "the zappo," "the zip," and "the poot."

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Re-read July 2020 ( )

Author/illustrator Thyra Heder explores the joy of movement and dance in this newest picture-book, depicting a variety of children and adults getting into the groove and performing their moves, all while a stubborn little boy insists that he doesn't want to join in. The narrative, and the characters on the page, try to get him to relent, but he resists until the very end of the book...

Having greatly enjoyed many of Heder's previous books, especially The Bear Report and Alfie: (The Turtle That Disappeared), I picked up How Do You Dance? with a pleasant feeling of anticipation. As I expected, the pencil and watercolor artwork is absolutely delightful, perfectly capturing the fun of dancing, and the sense of vitality and movement of the diverse dancers. The narrative is clearly meant to encourage children to move and dance, without worry about doing things the "right" way, and although it is not really a story, it is engaging. The ending, in which the boy does dance, but by himself, is a nice touch as well. Recommended to fans of Heder's illustrations, and to anyone looking for picture-books to encourage young dancers. ( )