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Title: Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield, Noel Streatfeild, Diane Goode ISBN: 0-8085-4250-8 Publisher: Bt Bound Pub. Date: October, 1999 Format: Library Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.71 (48 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Highly recommended; the best book of the "Shoes" series.
Comment: Pauline, Petrova, and Posy are adopted by an absent older man and brought up lovingly by his niece and her former nanny in pre-war England. The girls attend a performing arts school, and the story tells about their successes and failures both on- and offstage. As they try on ballet shoes, literally and metaphorically, the girls deal with fears, ego, talent, persistence, opportunity, competition, ambition, respect, and being poor among well-off peers. Eventually each girl finds her own right path.
Ballet Shoes was the best-loved book of my book-loving childhood, because I too was dance-crazy; because the three sisters were so different and so loyal; because so many kind adults helped them; because the "Britishisms" were so fun to read and learn; and because Noel Streatfeild's writing is good and plain, her characters are clear, and her plots are honest. Through this book, I learned that performing is work and joy; that everyone's different selves and lives deserve respect; and that independent women, and girls whose dreams are for themselves rather than Prince Charming, have good lives. This book may be especially good for poor children, for children with stars in their eyes, or for children growing up without blood relatives. Ballet Shoes helped me build an unshakable optimism, and I recommend it unreservedly.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Great Kids Book!
Comment: When I read this book I wanted to read it every night. Since I've finished reading it (boo hoo!) I've wanted to read more of the Shoe Books. I completely fell in love with the characters from this book, and met them every night when my dad read it to me. I think kids just like me will love this book. (...).
Rating: 4
Summary: A delightfully good book!
Comment: I didn't actually read this book until I was an adult, but I still enjoyed it very much. Streatfield did a good job with describing the characters of Posy, Pauline and Petrova. Each girl has her own individual characteristics, personality and background. In the book, you'll see their struggles to acheive their dreams; Pauline as an actress, Posy as a ballerina, and Petrova as a pilot. Girls who are theater-minded will relate best to Pauline and Posy; tomboys will relate better to Petrova, who dislikes her ballet and theater training and puts up with it only because she knows she's helping the family out financially. Petrova is the sort of girl who is interested in airplanes and cars, and could care less about being an actress or dancer.
However, while this is a charming story, it is very unrealistic in some ways. The girls, all of whom were orphaned in infancy, never wonder about their real parents, and Posy seems perfectly content with the fact that her mother abandoned her. Gum, who brought all three girls home, simply drops out of their lives before they're old enough to know him -- he never writes to them, comes to visit, asks about them, anything. Yet this never bothers the girls, and they accept his absence as a fact of life. All the girls' problems center around some aspect of their work; there are never any issues about things outside of it.
Even the ending, while touching, seems a little amiss. Instead of worrying about who she will live with(Posy and Pauline are both moving away to different places when promising opportunites arise for them) Petrova is wondering how she will make the Fossil(the name she and her sisters chose for themselves)name famous. If I was in that situation and my two sisters were going to live in two different places, with each of my guardians going to live separately with them, my concerns would be a little more practical. Thankfully, at this point Gum shows up and solves the dilemma.
In spite of that, this is a sweet, charming book, just delightfully good reading. I think that it would have been even better with some subplots regarding personal, non-work-related issues in the girls' lives, such as wondering about their real families, and what it would be like to have a dad. For this reason I give it four stars. Most likely this style of writing wasn't popular for children's books in Noel Streatfield's time. Nevertheless, I still find it a very enjoyable book, even at 28 years of age, and still recommend it heartily for any young girl.
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Title: Theater Shoes by NOEL STREATFEILD ISBN: 0679854347 Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: 15 November, 1994 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Dancing Shoes by NOEL STREATFEILD ISBN: 0679854282 Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: 05 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Party Shoes ISBN: 0192752537 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 |
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Title: Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace, Lois Lenski ISBN: 0064400964 Publisher: HarperTrophy Pub. Date: 04 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink, Helen Sewell ISBN: 0689717512 Publisher: Aladdin Library Pub. Date: 31 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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