Menu

A Dancer’s Tale: The Story of Phyllis Spira

a dancer's taleA 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.

 

See more Inspirational books below

 

The Little Tin Soldier – Irish Language edition - A beautiful Irish translation of the Kiwi Opa adaption of The Little Tin Soldier.  Translation by Gabriel Rosenstock.  Spread the love
Splookies children's story cover Splookies - Beware the nervous, watch out for the Splookies! These delightfully spooky creatures get up to mischief in this children’s story with lovely colourful images. Sample page from Splookies   Written by Gabriel Rosenstock, Illustrated by Rucha Dhayarkar Download or read online the full book by selecting one of the buttons below the post. Adapted from ...
4 Reasons Why Parents Should Motivate Their Teenagers to Aim for MBA Courses - Guiding teenagers to ensure they excel in academics can be hard. With so many distractions on the internet, teens frequently forget to concentrate on what’s important.  According to UNICEF, motivating a teen can be easy if parents include choices, praise their efforts, and get creative with rewards. Thankfully, you knew these, and your parenting skills ...
Brazilian Children's Authors The Most Famous Authors of Children’s Books in Brazil - I In this conetnt we will focus on the field of children’s education in Brazil, introducing some of the most famous children’s book authors in the country. Keep reading and check them out: Ziraldo (1932–2024) Ziraldo was born in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1932 and passed away in Rio de Janeiro in 2024, at the ...
Children's story about a clever tortoise cover The Clever Tortoise - The tortoises want the wood apples but they don’t have hands to open them like the monkeys, will they find a solution? Find out in the cute, brightly illustrated story. Sample Page from The Clever Tortoise Download or read online the full book of The Clever Tortoise by selecting one of the buttons below the ...
mddle school free ebook What They Didn’t Tell You About Middle School - Ishan Khire is back with a wonderful treatise on life in middle school. In this book Ishan will have to face the biggest challenge of his life: middle school. Suddenly, from arts and crafts week and eating mac and cheese with juice boxes at lunch, he’s thrust into an environment with 6 foot giants they ...
Children's story about courage
Children's story about electricity Unni’s Wish - Unni doesn’t understand why he can’t have cold lime juice, a fan to keep cool, or TV like his friend, then one day some men come to work in his village, what do you think will happen? A beautiful Creative Commons book from Pratham Books. Attribution: Unnit’s Wish (English), written by Meryl Garcia, illustrated by ...
Dragon School decodable reader Dragon School - A young dragon dreams of going to dragon school but first he must find his lost bell. Another great decodable reader from BookBot. Sample Page from Dragon School Download or read online the full book but selecting one of the buttons below the post. Bookbot provide a wonderful selection of creative commons, leveled books, for ...
rain early reader Rain - A short children’s story about rain and water. Suitable for an early reader. Text from Rain I love water. I enjoy playing with water. It is raining. Rain gives us water. I enjoy playing outside. But it is raining. I enjoy playing out in the rain. My hair is wet from playing in the rain. ...

See more books by BookDash below

 

Children's story about courage
Children's story about a trip to the communal tap and recycling A Trip to the Tap - Oluhle is excited to go to the tap and fetch water, she will see her friends there, but what happens when she can’t find her bucket? Illustrated by Phumle April Written by Sindeka Mandoyi Designed by Nadene Kriel Sample Page from A Trip to the Tap   Download the full book by selecting one of ...
The Dirty Smelly Beast early reader Unathi and the Dirty, Smelly Beast – fun early reader - Unathi and the Dirty, Smelly Beast – A mysterious dirty smelly beast is following Unathi home, or is it really a dirty smelly beast? Find out in this fun creative commons picture book from BookDash. This picture book is perfect for young children who want to start reading and understand common words with help. The ...
The Memory Tree – Dealing with a Death in the Family - Thembi and Thulani’s Grandpa is very sick. They are sad. Then Mommy and Daddy tell them Grandpa won’t be coming home anymore. They miss Grandpa Nathi. Daddy and Mommy find a special way to remember Grandpa Nathi. Illustrated by Agrippa Mncedisi Hlophe Written by Savnola Goldridge Designed by Jason Gien Edited by Mariam Mahomed Brought ...
Catch that Cat! - The Cat has stolen a sock and then ran off, but is there a reason why she stole the sock? Find out more in Catch that Cat from BookDash. Sample Text from Catch that Cat! Hurry. Hurry! Help me, catch that cat! She stole my sock and ran off … snatch her. Grab her. Catch ...
Brave Bora – A trip to the Doctor - Follow Bora with her toy Monkey Jojo and her Baba on a trip to the Doctor to get a scary injection. Find out if she can overcome her fears and how.   This book was brought to us by BookDash, see more from BookDash here on FKB below:  Spread the love
An Unexpected Adventure – Wordless Fun - In An Unexpected Adventure, a boy finds some exciting scenarios on a trip to the Library. In this book you can make your own words, teachers can use it as a word prompt for students, or it can be a fun exercise for parents and children to make their own words, it’s also very suitable ...
I Can Dress Myself – Wordless Book - I Can Dress Myself is an amusing short wordless book about a child getting herself dressed while Mum is sleeping. Have fun making up some words or have your child guess what is going on in each picture. This story was brought to us by BookDash. Listen to a narration created by Kiwi Opa: If ...
Egg – A simple mystery - In Egg Crocodile, tortoise, penguin, and chicken find an egg, is it theirs? If not whose is it? Find out in this simple book for very young children. Text from Egg Egg My Egg? Not My Egg. My Egg? Not My Egg. My Egg? Not My Egg. My Egg? Not My Egg. My egg. Our ...
Tig’s World – An important question - In Tig’s World Tig asks her mom who is a scientist and her dad who is a writer what happens to the people on the bottom side of the earth and why they don’t fall off. Whose answer is right? Author: Sam Wilson, Illustrator: Dorian Dutrieux Sample Text from Tig’s World Tig’s mom is a ...

Sponsored Links:

Note – if you sign up through these links, it doesn’t cost you any extra, but FKB receives a small donation, which helps us with our project to buy more FREE Hardcopies   for kids who need them


All our posts are checked by Grammarly, the FREE online grammar checker (We still receive a donation even if you only sign up for the free account :-):

 
Spread the love

Comments 7

  • 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

     

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

....