The Ballerina Astronaut

My husband and I have always used stories throughout the day to encourage our daughter to use her imagination and hopefully enjoy reading as she got older. Our bedtime routine has always included a story of her choice and as soon as she was able to talk, she began to add her own made-up stories as part of the routine.

One evening, after a day of singing and dancing as usual, she told me an elaborate story with details of dancing and dreaming about going to visit the moon. My husband heard the story over the baby monitor and insisted it was the sweetest thing he had ever heard. He convinced my to write it down in my ongoing mother's journal, and so I did.

Several weeks passed, and I couldn't help but tell friends and family the wonderful story my daughter created. Several friends and my mother expressed the idea that this should be a children's book. As a kindergarten teacher, mother, and dancer, the idea seemed very encouraging. I began to put it in story form, and the final product is this wonderful gift from my daughter, The Ballerina Astronaut.