Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Ballet Shoes (MG)

Ballet Shoes. Noel Streatfeild. 1937. Random House. 256 pages.

The Fossil sisters lived in the Cromwell Road. At that end of it which is farthest away from the Brompton Road, and yet sufficiently near it so one could be taken to look at the dolls' houses in the Victoria and Albert every wet day.

Pauline, Petrova, and Posy are three children adopted by Gum. Gum is Great Uncle Matthew. He "found" each one of them and brought them home. He didn't stay home to help with the raising of them, but he provided money enough to keep them for a handful of years. Nana and Miss Sylvia had hoped he'd return soon--very soon--before the money began to run out. But that isn't quite the case. The children--for better or worse--end up in a special performing arts school. Posy, who loves to dance, is thrilled. As is Pauline for whom acting comes naturally. Petrova, on the other hand, is less thrilled by the training. Her heart is just not in it.

Ballet Shoes is their story. A story of three sisters--they chose the last name "Fossil" themselves. A story of how they tried to make a name for themselves. We see them struggle; we see them succeed.

I liked this one very much. It was very enjoyable, very pleasant.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

3 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

I am ordering a copy of this library for a student who loves historical fiction and ballet. I always loved these myself, and even the movie of this one was fun!

Mrs. N said...

I never read these growing up and was delighted by this as an adult. Sadly I can't seem to get my hands on any of the other shoes books. My huge city library system has none.

Grace said...

I love this book! This is a great story about the sisters, and how although they each wanted to do different things, they stuck together.

Grace, 11
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