angelina star of the show katharine holabird

I picked up my pen and began dreaming and writing, and that's when Angelina Ballerina twirled onto the page and made her sparkling debut! Luckily, I was already friends with English artist Helen Craig, and she drew Angelina Ballerina as an adorable dancing mouse. I wanted to write something for my spirited little daughters, and for young children everywhere who love to dance and perform.

Real inspiration came when my two young daughters began twirling around the house in their pink tutus. After graduation, I worked on the college literary magazine for a year before I got married and moved to London, where I became a nursery school teacher and freelance writer, and then the mother of three children. I went on to study literature and creative writing at Bennington College in Vermont. I loved reading books and adored my menagerie of pets, including a raccoon and an owl. I was always creating stories and writing, and from an early age, I knew I wanted to be a writer, though I couldn’t figure out how to become one! As a child, I was always making up stories and dances with my three sisters. I grew up in Chicago in a family of architects and artists, and luckily I had parents and teachers who encouraged a little dreamer like me, with my outsized imagination and even bigger emotions.

Angelina star of the show katharine holabird