Draft:Ballet of the Elephants

Ballet of the Elephants is a 2006 illustrated nonfiction children's book by Leda Schubert, with illustrations by Robert Andrew Parker. A look at the 1942 New York City performance of Igor Stravinsky's Circus Polka, it received positive reviews.

Summary and format
The book tells the story of the Circus Polka by Igor Stravinsky, as commissioned and presented by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus of New York City in 1942. According to Publishers Weekly, "Several spreads feature separate brief histories of [Stravinsky, choreographer George Balanchine, and circus leader John Ringling North]: readers learn of Stravinsky's misunderstood music and Balanchine's homesickness when he was sent away to ballet school at age nine. North, who envisioned the pachyderm performance, called upon Russian-born Balanchine, who then involved his friend and fellow countryman Stravinsky. A gatefold opens to reveal the momentous dance." Trivia and black-and-white pictures of the performance are also included.

Reception
Ballet of the Elephants was selected as a May 2006 Editors' Choice by The New York Times Book Review. Writing for that publication, Jed Perl observed that "Schubert and Parker celebrate the funny elegance of the 'Circus Polka' story. Their book is a playful revelation." The Christian Science Monitor Jenny Sawyer stated that Schubert "weave[s] the disparate pieces leading up to New York, 1942, into a coherent, almost poetic text that moves gracefully from the circus's arrival in New York, to brief histories of each of the three men, and then back to that magical night — and the 424 performances that followed."