Dancing on Memories

"A beautiful story filled with empathy for those grappling with memory loss." --Kirkus Reviews

A young girl is able to evoke smiles and memories when she plays the music of Swan Lake for her grandmother, a former ballerina who now suffers from Alzheimer's.

Once Nana pirouetted like moonlight shimmering on a lake.

But now the Memory Thief has come. Nana sits still like a whisper.

Sarah and her Nana used to spend their days baking challah together for Shabbat and dancing like the flames of Hanukkah candles. But now Nana is sick; she mostly talks about the past, has trouble remembering the right words, and hardly smiles.

Sarah wants to help her Nana. She listens to the stories and helps when Nana forgets words. But there must be something else she can do to make Nana happy again. That's when Sarah gets the idea to play the music of Swan Lake that Nana used to hear when she was a ballerina. Listening to it again makes Nana light up, and she remembers how to dance again with Sarah.

Backmatter includes a glossary for Jewish and ballet vocabulary and a note discussing the author's own experiences with loved ones diagnosed with Alzheimer's, as well as the true story of Marta Cinta González, a ballerina who remembered the dances she used to do despite her disease.

Author: Freda Lewkowicz
Publisher: Apples & Honey Press
Published: 10/28/2025
Pages: 32
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 10.50h x 9.00w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9781681156941
Audience: Ages 4-8


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2025

About the Author
Lewkowicz, Freda: -

Freda Lewkowicz is a writer and a retired teacher. She won the 2021 Astra International Picture Book Writing Contest for her manuscript titled SONGS OF THE REFUGEE. She is the recipient of the 2005 Quebec government Anne Greenup Award for Work Against Racism, Prejudice and Hate. Freda taught English at Rosemere High School for 39 years. She was also a part-time freelance journalist for Canadian newspapers. Today Freda is an advocate for her mother, a Holocaust survivor. Her parents' stories inspired her to write picture books about the Holocaust, intergenerational love, and dementia. She lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Garland, Sally Anne: - Sally Anne Garland loved drawing and stories from a very early age. After studying illustration at Edinburgh College Of Art she worked for many years as an in-house Designer/ Illustrator for a number of retail suppliers, before becoming a full-time freelance Children's Illustrator with Advocate Art Ltd in 2010. She is also the author of two picture books, Share and Don't Speak With Your Mouth Full, published with Little Tiger Press. She lives in Glasgow with her partner and son.