As a dance teacher, it is easy to find research papers, chapter books, and reference books to inspire my teaching. It's also easy to find generic books about made up kids who dance. It is much hard to find high quality children's books about real and important historical dancers. I audibly gasped when I saw this ARC and I'm so happy I was approved. I will absolutely be buying this for my class library. Just perfect.

Sheer brilliance. The book is beautiful, engaging and uplifting and the VOICE is astonishing. It's hard to believe that this isn't Josephine Baker sitting right there with you as the reader, telling her own story. Absolutely incredible. So very accessible too. It deserves ALL the stars and more.

I received a copy of this eBook from netGalley for a honest review.

Wow! This book is full of so much information told through the eyes of Josephine Baker. What a great way for children and adults to learn more about this amazing performer and activist. I learned a lot and was move by Josephine's life and accomplishments.

Catherine Johnson has created an amazingly entertaining biographical narrative. This is a book that will engage lovers of both fact and fiction. Johnson uses her amazing skills to produce a book that takes the many dark periods of Josephine Barker's life and present them in a way that young children (aged 9+) can understand and will feel comfortable reading. All the way through, I could hear Barker's voice and feel her passion. To create a first-person narrative that follows a person's entire life and yet not lose it's youthful point of view and voice is a great that Catherine Johnson handled masterfully. I very much look forward to reading more of her work.
Published by Barrington Stokes, this is also an ideal book for dyslexic children or struggling readers.
As a person who I knew nothing of, I found this book fascinating. It is well pitched and incredibly readable and would make a fantastic read aloud book. Perfect for school libraries and classroom bookshelves from year 4 and up, and it wouldn't be out of place in a secondary library.

We get excited when we are assigned a Barrington Stokes book to read because they are always great books to read together. My teen grandaughter rolled her eyes at one stage when there was a reference to a man Josephine worked for but the nuances seemed to pass the others by. This true tale has us all gripped from the beginning What an amazing lady.

Fascinating biography of Josephine Baker retold for readers 9+ by Catherine Johnson who is so skilled at historical storytelling and biographies. I learned so much about Baker's extraordinary life, and she covers some difficult episodes with a deft hand, not turning away from the harshness of Baker's life but giving enough information for the age of the intended readership. I want to know more about Baker's life after reading this. Biographies are increasingly popular reads and this will be a great addition to what's available for young readers.

Dance of Resistance is a middle-grade (reading age 8, interest age 9+) book on the life of Josephine Baker. It's written from the perspective of Josephine Baker from her birth in East St Louis, USA, in 1906 through her time in Philadelphia and New York City, her performing success and espionage in France, and her fight for equal rights in the USA, until her death in 1975. Dance of Resistance offers a nuanced, engaging story of her life, and I really enjoyed it.

I love how clearly Catherine Johnson details the importance of dance and performance to Josephine. Her inner thoughts show her obvious love of dancing, singing, and connecting with the audience. I also appreciate the inclusion of Josephine's hardships without overcentring the violence. It's difficult to balance struggle and success, especially in a middle-grade book like this, and I think Catherine Johnson has done an excellent job.

Also, I absolutely love this cover! I didn't understand the inclusion of the cheetah until I had read that part in the book, and now I can see that the cover is a clear reflection of Josephine Baker's complex life. I wish the book had more images throughout the story in the same style as the cover. Images of her families, theatre dances, and pets would help to keep readers, especially younger readers, captivated by the story.

Overall, Dance of Resistance presents the complex, multifaceted life of Josephine Baker in an easy-to-follow, captivating story. I will be purchasing this book for my ESL library.

Thank you to Barrington Stoke and Catherine Johnson for this excellent ARC!

5 stars

Thank you so much to Barrington Stoke and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

This was amazing, I knew about Josephine Baker, but I didn’t know much so reading this was wonderful. She lived such an incredibly full life and I really liked that this book shared everything about it. I liked the way it was written as though she was sharing her life with the audience her self, it was honestly such an amazing touch to this book.

Her determination to be a star did such great things for her, she unbelievably managed to achieve every dream she could ever think of, though it was a difficult, and a difficult world, a world where black people were still treated like dirt, she didn’t let it stop her from her dreams, no matter what changes she had to make to make them come true.

Growing up in such a bad way made her an incredibly strong woman, she was brave and seemed almost fearless. There were so many things within the book that shocked me, things I never imagined she’d have been part of or had to go through. She was so resilient though, as these things happened but she managed to over come them and move past them to go for her dreams no matter what.

This was such a wonderfully made memoir of the Great Josephine Baker, I honestly loved learning so much about her, not just how incredible she was on the stage and how much being a performer and star made her; but also her childhood struggles, her war time work, how she fought for rights, how she lived the end of her life.

This whole book was all so full of information and I absolutely loved reading this book about her. One note I will say is I wish there had of been a photograph of her at the back of the book for readers who might not have been familiar with her yet and would have loved to get a glimpse at who they were reading about.

A really interesting, child friendly book about the life of Josephine baker, with the lead as the narrator.
I discovered lots I didn't know about her.
Great for younger readers although one part, about a man she worked for, although true didn't seem quite appropriate for the age, although no specifics were mentioned.
Would recommend.

I read this short middle-grade novel in one night! Dance of Resistance packs a remarkable amount of information about Josephine Baker into just over 100 pages. It sparked my curiosity about her life and accomplishments, and I’m excited to learn even more. The writing is well-suited for the intended audience, and I’d definitely recommend this one to anyone who reads or curates middle-grade collections.

This was a beautifully done book for Josephine Baker, it brought Josephine to life and had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed in this type of book. It works as a children's fiction novel and had that element that I was looking for and learned a bunch of information that I didn't know about. Catherine Johnson has a strong writing style and was glad it was everything that I was hoping for.

This is an amazing piece of non-fiction narrative for kids. It lays out Joséphine Baker's life as though she is telling us about it.

The book covers segregation through Josephine's experiences as a female theatrical performer in America and then France. The contrasts help to highlight the horror of discrimination, through showing how she is treated in both places.

When the war arrives, we see how Joséphine takes an active role in defending her new home France.

Importantly this book has a lot of detail, but written in a consice manner, while ensuring there is plenty to capture the reader's attention. I am so disappointed I never knew more about Joséphine Baker before now and I'm so pleased this book is available for children to explore black history that has too often been neglected.

I have to admit I'd never really heard or knew much about Josephine Baker, but my interest was piqued by the title Dance of Resistance, possibly because it sounded so similar to Resist (about Audrey Hepburn written by Tom Palmer which I absolutely loved reading, and because Dance of Resistance is also a story with links to WW2 (one of my favourite periods in History). Also Barrington Stoke always publish tremendous reads, and I was keen to discover more. In addition, I thoroughly enjoyed Freedom and Race to the Frozen North also by Catherine, so I was looking forward to reading this.
This telling of the story of Josephine Baker: dancer, singer, actress, movie star, and civil-rights activist who overcame poverty to become one of the biggest stars of the early twentieth century, by Catherine Johnson is an accessible read which will engage readers at all levels, although readers should note that there is a section that will certainly not be suitable for younger readers.
In Dance of Resistance we learn how Baker used her connections to help the Resistance in their fight against the Nazis during the Second World War and later became involved with Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement in the US. It is clear that Johnson's story is inspiring and her story has been vividly brought to life by the pen of Catherine Johnson.
Although errors with formatting spoilt the flow of the text, this was an informative read. Huge thanks to the publishers Barrington Stoke for an early read via NetGalley.