Bongi Ballerina Takes A Bow

Written by Kristien Potgieter and illustrated by Cristy Zinn (Lapa Publishers)

Get ready to pirouette into another thrilling Bongi Ballerina adventure in this second book about a little girl who hates all things pink and sparkly and loves ghosts, zombies and creepy insects. 

In Bongi Ballerina Takes a Bow, Bongi is cast as a grasshopper and a horse in her ballet school’s “Cinderella” concert. She is thrilled to be able to wear a bright green costume and she is proud of her friend Tamzin’s selection as a fairy, with the older ballet girls.  But then Tamzin starts acting strangely; she ignores her friends when they call her, she rushes off all the time after rehearsal and often misses her cues and then strange things start happening at the theatre too —missing shoes, vanishing costumes, eerie noises. Bongi suspects that the theatre is haunted.

The friends start to get cross with Tamzin and tensions rise, culminating on the first performance night when Tamzin disappears just as she is meant to dance onto stage and the papier-mâché pumpkin on stage begins to wobble… I can’t tell you more without giving the plot away, but it is delightful, funny and engaging!

This sequel to the beloved Bongi Ballerina series is an entertaining, heartwarming tale of courage and friendship.

About the author

Kristien Potgieter has a PhD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she was the 2015–2016 Booker Prize Scholar.  Interestingly, she did her thesis on diverse representations of the ballerina in middle grade and young adult fiction. She currently works as an editor in educational publishing. Both her fiction and academic research have been published online and in print. She is also author of the award winning adult novel In the Valley of Bones. 

Follow her on instagram here and subscribe to her Story Explorers Club Substack.