My Mama Had a Dancing Heart (Orchard Paperbacks)

"In spring, summer, fall and winter, a mother leads her young daughter in dancing a celebratory ballet, a hymn to the season. When the girl is older, she is a ballerina and remembers that her mother gave her a dancing heart.... [An] exuberant celebration of dance." - School Library Journal, starred review

Libba Moore Gray has been an actress, a dancer, and for twenty years a teacher of high school English and drama. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in a number of literary magazines, but "Miss Tizzy" is her first writing for children.

Ms. Gray's four children include a businessman, a ballerina, a teacher, and a professional clown. With her husband, Robert, she makes her home in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Colon has illustrated several highly acclaimed picture books, including the "New York Times" bestselling "Angela and the Baby Jesus" by Frank McCourt, Susanna Reich's "Jose! Born to Dance", and Jill Biden's "Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops"." "Mr. Colon lived in Puerto Rico as a young boy and now resides in New City, New York, with his family.