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Read this series in JR High and simply LOVED them! I need to track these down.....
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Drina #11
Drina Ballerina
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Drina Ballerina
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1991
This edition
- Format
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188 pages, Paperback
- Published
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January 17, 1991 by Hodder
- ISBN
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9780750005944
- ASIN
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0750005947
- Language
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English
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Community Reviews
Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 16 votes)
5 stars
3(19%)
4 stars
8(50%)
3 stars
5(31%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
16 reviews All reviews
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I do think this series finished too quickly. I think I'd have preferred Drina to be at least 20 - 21 before she got the ballerina title, and also before she got married. I thought the whole Rose storyline was weak... suddenly Rose was jealous but she had never been before? Seriously? However because I love this series and it was a conclusion - and a happy conclusion at that, I'm still happy to leave it at the five stars it was when I read it as a much younger girl :)
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I had not read the Drina books since I was a child and I recently re-read them all. I read the first 5 as a child and then as a teen I hunted down the final 6 once I realized they existed. I am happy to say that for the most part they hold up to the test of time. They are very much in the style of British school stories but I quite like those. I think the whole series is definitely worth the effort it takes to hunt them down.
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My grandmother bought this book for me when I was 8 or 9 and I remember reading it in the car journey back home and loving it.
Over the years I have managed to acquire the rest of the series and this is one of the best books which ends it.
Drina is now dancing with the Dominick company full time and starts the book by going to see her friend Jenny who has just had a baby. Estoril quickly gets us up to speed with what has happened in the 9 months since the previous book ended and we find Drina is struggling to decide if she should marry or wait until she has had her first star role.
A lot happens in this book and Drina is certainly an adult by the end of it. I noticed details I had missed which is why I love re-reading books. An excellent finale to an excellent series.
Over the years I have managed to acquire the rest of the series and this is one of the best books which ends it.
Drina is now dancing with the Dominick company full time and starts the book by going to see her friend Jenny who has just had a baby. Estoril quickly gets us up to speed with what has happened in the 9 months since the previous book ended and we find Drina is struggling to decide if she should marry or wait until she has had her first star role.
A lot happens in this book and Drina is certainly an adult by the end of it. I noticed details I had missed which is why I love re-reading books. An excellent finale to an excellent series.
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see review of book #1
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I'm embarrassed to say that I finally got this book and read it this week. I thoroughly enjoyed the finale to a series that I started as a kid and never finished (11 books, 5 published in the US). It gives me some closure!
The last book is interesting and sufficiently bittersweet to be somewhat realistic. Drina is described as "ruthless" as she climbs the ranks of her ballet company and has lost a connection with may of her close friends. She's okay with that though and marries and American businessman at the end(this is the early 60s, I think). I found the descriptions of NY and air travel from that era to be revealing. There is such of sense of optimism that pervades through this book--I wonder if this is the case of many children’s books from the late 50s and early 60s...
The last book is interesting and sufficiently bittersweet to be somewhat realistic. Drina is described as "ruthless" as she climbs the ranks of her ballet company and has lost a connection with may of her close friends. She's okay with that though and marries and American businessman at the end(this is the early 60s, I think). I found the descriptions of NY and air travel from that era to be revealing. There is such of sense of optimism that pervades through this book--I wonder if this is the case of many children’s books from the late 50s and early 60s...
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I give the series five stars, but this book only three. I've been waiting 20 years to read this book, and finally, I tracked it down (and was actually able to afford it) but it did not live up to 20 years worth of expectation. In all fairness, probably not much would. It's obvious that this book was written many years after the tenth book, Drina Goes on Tour. The writing style is different, it's stilted, and it's hard to determine which decade it's set in.
Whatever flaws with the writing and characters not being true to their past selves (Angry! Rose, just why???) I'm still so glad that I finally read it. The drina series epitomized my junior high life, I read and re-read books 1-10 countless times (books 6-10 the prized souvenirs of a trip to London in fifth grade, since they were never released in the US.) Drina not only fostered a life long love of the ballet, but she taught me that the most important thing in life is to follow your dream. I wish all young girls would read this series. Even though they were written in the 1960's, the writing and characters surprisingly hold up.
This 11th book might not have been to the same caliber of the first 10, but I will never regret reading it. I sobbed like a child when I finished it (much to my husbands delight, I'll never live this down) just because the series was over and even though I'm 30+ years old, it feels like with Drina's marriage and success, both of our childhoods were finally officially over too. Thank you, Drina, for being part of my life for the last 22 years. I'll never forget you!
Whatever flaws with the writing and characters not being true to their past selves (Angry! Rose, just why???) I'm still so glad that I finally read it. The drina series epitomized my junior high life, I read and re-read books 1-10 countless times (books 6-10 the prized souvenirs of a trip to London in fifth grade, since they were never released in the US.) Drina not only fostered a life long love of the ballet, but she taught me that the most important thing in life is to follow your dream. I wish all young girls would read this series. Even though they were written in the 1960's, the writing and characters surprisingly hold up.
This 11th book might not have been to the same caliber of the first 10, but I will never regret reading it. I sobbed like a child when I finished it (much to my husbands delight, I'll never live this down) just because the series was over and even though I'm 30+ years old, it feels like with Drina's marriage and success, both of our childhoods were finally officially over too. Thank you, Drina, for being part of my life for the last 22 years. I'll never forget you!
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Finally able to read all 11 in the series!
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