A Dancer’s Tale: The Story of Phyllis Spira – An inspiring tale about the life of Phyllis Spira, renowned South African dancer, who dedicated her later life to free dance programs for underprivileged children. Another great Creative Commons book from Bookdash.
By: Samantha Cutler, Thea Nicole de Klerk
Text and Images from A Dancer’s Tale: The Story of Phyllis Spira

Once upon a time,
in Joburg’s Orange Grove,
a little girl called Phyllis
was born into the world.
Two people in love,
hugged their sweet little babe.
No-one knew then,
what a dancer they’d made.
By the time she was four, she had learned very quick.
She impressed all her teachers, with her ducky feet flicks!
Before school and after, she danced everyday.
Nothing pleased Phyllis, more than ballet.

When the world was ready
for Phyllis at fifteen,
She arrived in big, old London,
ready to live her dream.
She said goodbye to all her friends.
She was ready to start fresh.
Watch out Royal Ballet School!
Phyllis is here to impress
When Phyllis danced Swan Lake, it was fit to show the Queen!
After years of pirouetting, she was ready to be seen.
Dancing for the audience, she turned and twirled about.
Look! Everyone is smiling! See how they clap and shout!
<end of sample>
You can also read along with the video below
About Book Dash
Book Dash gathers professional creatives – writers, illustrators, designers, editors – who volunteer to create high-quality children’s books that anyone can freely download, translate, print and distribute. Most of the work is done
on a Book Dash day, when small teams work for over twelve straight hours, each producing a new book.
Why Book Dash?
Books purchased from publishers cost too much. In order to distribute more books for South African children, Book Dash participants work as publishers in a single day, having a book with no publishers mean the book will be a lot cheaper the only cost will be printing the books. With these, anyone can run sponsored prints and the finished books can be handed to children.
Every child should have a hundred books when they reach the age of five. that means handing down 600 million free books to South African children who probably could not afford to buy them, More children grow up not learning how to read and write well, and every day we lose more of these children. Let us not neglect these children and help them overcome poverty by first teaching them how to read and to enjoy the worlds that a book can open up.
About Creative Commons
Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories ‐ provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following.
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I liked it because it was heartwarming and awesome 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍👍👍👍
I like inspiring stories
it is an interesting biography of a ballerina’s travels around the world.
I like it because i also love to dance.
I like this book because its about dance
I like this book because it was a interesting and happy
giselle writes:
Beautiful story.
Marianne Jackson writes:
Very cute!
lee writes:
what a nice book..
Nadine writes:
beautiful book! my daughter and I enjoyed it!
Kamalini Hastak writes:
A beautifully written book with lovely illustrations. Children would love to read this biography and want to know more about Phyllis and ballet.
Wan Tong writes:
I like this book because its teaching you try hard,never give up.
ella writes:
enjoyed very much
swastika writes:
it is a very nice book
Isabella writes:
i like the book because i also love to dance and i traveled to France and Mexico I’m almost like but it was worth the try i have 10 times and then I’m visiting Puerto Rico Yay!
Mansur writes:
i like this book