Almost certainly my favourite childhood novel. I read it and re-read it over and over again. My dream as a child was to be either a ballet dancer or an actress, so Ballet Shoes was perfect for me (as were other books by Noel Streatfeild, especially the Gemma series) and Lorna Hill's Sadlers Wells series. Well, I became neither a dancer nor an actress, but my love for the performing arts has endured, as has my love for this book.

Professor Mathew Brown or Great Uncle Mathew or Gum, lives with his niece Sylvia and her nurse Nana, and from time to time takes off on expeditions from where he brings back fossils, adding to a huge collection which has to be thinned down from time to time. One day he decides to travel by sea rather than land, and from three of these voyages brings back three little babies, either orphaned or whose parents are unable to take care of them, and these three little girls are Pauline, Petrova, and Posy (who comes with a pair of ballet shoes her mother gave her). They take on the surname Fossil, for that is what ties them together. But while Pauline dreams of being an actress, and Posy can be nothing but a dancer (she is one), Petrova is happiest with cars and engines. Gum hasn’t returned from his latest expedition for long nor has been heard from, and money is tight, so Sylvia decides to take in boarders, and this leads not only to the children making new friends, but also entering the Children’s Academy of Dancing, where Pauline and Posy are happy, and Petrova simply does all that is required of her so that she can begin earning and support the house as soon as possible (that is at age 12, when no other option would be available to them). We join them on their journey at the academy as their train to hone their different talents, begin their careers on the stage, and try to get their names into history books!

What a charming and lovely story this was. I loved all the characters—the three girls are all very likeable, and even when they have their difficult moments or sulks, they essentially remain nice girls; Nana is sensible, yet not too strict; Sylvia is also very young and must struggle to keep things going. The boarders—the Simpsons, a couple back home from Malaysia, Theo, who teaches at the Academy, and the two doctors (of literature and mathematics, respectively)—are very likeable too, and one loves how all of them begin to become a big family, though each of them lead their own lives. The girls’ time and experiences at the Academy reminded me very much of the other series from the 1940s that I’ve been reading, The Blue Door series by Pamela Brown. The hard work that goes into training and into the roles themselves, the fact that success can go to one’s head very easily and fall from it can be truly hard, and of course, the joys that little successes and opportunities can bring. This was a really gentle and sweet story which I truly enjoyed reading. The lovely illustrations by Ruth Gervis add a lot to its charm. Loved it!

This book passed me by as a child but it was one of my daughter’s favourites growing up and I’m glad I’ve now read it. I really enjoyed the story of the Fossil sisters and the elusive Gum. Really likeable characters; nana was my favourite with her no nonsense approach and comic one liners. Some of the sisters got too big for their boots occasionally, but that all added to their characters. An all round lovely book.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read this, it was my childhood comfort read and still lovely to return to. A classic for a reason!

It’s a complete mystery to me why I’ve read this classic children’s book, but I suppose better “late” than never.

Like Louisa May Alcott before her (in the immortal Little Women), Streatfeild brings together several different heroines for the reader to identify with. There is Pauline, blonde and blue-eyed, who wants to be an actress. Then Petrova, who has straight dark hair and narrow eyes, and is good at all sorts of mechanical things. Posy, the youngest, has a cloud of fluffy red hair; she arrives with a pair of ballet shoes, and is a gifted dancer. All three girls are orphans, and the first chapter of the book quickly establishes their “origin” story. Great-Uncle Matthew (thereafter referred to as a GUM) is an explorer and great fossil hunter. Through a series of incidents and accidents, he ends up adopting three baby girls: and Fossil becomes their last name. When GUM disappears off on his adventures, the girls end up being raised by his great-niece (Sylvia, nicknamed “Garnie”) and her formidable Nanny.

The fascinating bit for me was the setting of this book: London during the 1930s. Despite living in a huge house off the Gloucester Road, with a Cook and Maids and Nanny, the constant, nagging need of money is a backdrop to the storyline and provides the impetus for the girls’ need to start earning. Set during the worst years of the worldwide economic depression, the book combines aspiration and harder reality to very good effect. The girls attend a stage school, where they study acting, singing and dance, and as soon as they turn 12 they are able to get a special license and become “professionals”. The world of London theatre, pantomimes and even cinema becomes accessible through the plot line, and I’ve no doubt that most of the details were very true-to-life as Streatfeild herself went through RADA training. Clothes play a huge role in the story, and the characters are forever contriving and “making do” in order to keep up appearances.

Ambition, ingenuity, gumption and discipline are all major key notes in the storyline. All of the girls want to earn their keep, but they also want to excel - and to make their “Fossil” name special. It’s easy to understand why the book was a huge hit in 1936, the year it was published, and why it has continued to inspire and charm subsequent generations.

Note: I was finally inspired to read this book after reading Patrick Gale’s Take Nothing With You. He mentions Ballet Shoes in that book, and describes it as a “fairy godmother” to his own story.

Very lovely!
British children literature remains one of the best! So cosy and adorable.
Surprise queer (lesbian) (coded) characters and a general women and girls (and their dreams and aspirations in life) focused story that has really great feminist nuances.
Loved the insights into child work laws and theater in the 1930s (in London), especially stage and movie make-up history. Hehe. (That’s one of my favorite topics in life!)
I am interested in reading her other books, even though I will miss my Fossils!

A wonderful experience!! It was very informative about life as dancing and acting students in 1930s London, yet written with the forthrightness of a child's perspective and a fun sense of humor. I plan to read more by Noel Streatfeild.

Delightful! I am madly in love with British lit. This is a book that loves children.

A sweet delightful interlude that I wish I had read as a child.

Published: 1936

Noel Streatfeild was one of the twentieth century's most beloved British children's authors, and it's not hard to see why. Ballet Shoes is quintessential English storytelling charm, every becoming trait of the era neatly fit within its pages. It's not a vehicle for any overarching message other than the sweet thrill of life in all its ups and downs, the reward of persevering through lean times to enjoy the good. The characters are winsome and very real, none equipped with super-traits to shield them from harm, the three sisters—Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil—all undeniably different girls who desire disparate outcomes from the lives they embark upon. The grownups surrounding them are as varied as the girls, with their own tempers, talents, aspirations, and ways of influencing the story, and Noel Streatfeild utilizes them in constructing a richly satisfying junior novel. This first volume of the Shoes series is a timeless work that kids of any age and generation will do well to keep close to their hearts and learn from, for its value is practically limitless. Oh, to go back and have the privilege of my first read of Ballet Shoes a second time. Few books would please me more to reread as a blank slate, unaware of the nourishing nectar I was about to imbibe.

Pauline, Petrova, and Posy aren't sisters biologically. Their happenstance kinship resulted from the worldwide travels of Great-Uncle Matthew, affectionately shorted to Gum, whose journeys brought many spectacular fossils over the years to the collection he curates in his huge home. When Gum seriously injures his leg and can no longer walk far in search of fossils, much to the relief of stern house manager Nana, he takes to the sprawling seas instead to satiate his craving for adventure. He soon comes into possession of an orphaned baby he brings home and leaves for Nana to look after. The first baby is joined shortly by a second under similar circumstances, but Gum doesn't return home when he sends the third orphaned infant. He arranges to have the house and its inhabitants cared for over the next five years, then sets sail in search of more fortune and fame, leaving a house of ladies anxiously awaiting his homecoming.

Fortunately, Nana isn't left alone to tend the three foundlings. Gum's teenage great-niece, Sylvia, takes an active role in their upbringing, becoming a sort of mother to the trio. Cook prepares meals and Clara helps with housework, but Nana and Sylvia will be the primary caregivers until Gum shows up to account for his collection of international orphans. As Pauline, Petrova, and Posy grow, household finances are placed under considerable strain, for Gum had only a vague idea how much money raising children requires, and the trust fund he arranged is rapidly coming to an end. Taking on boarders at Gum's roomy estate alleviates the discomfort considerably, and brings some of the more fascinating characters of the book into orbit around Pauline, Petrova, and Posy's life. Miss Theo Dane, dignified dancer at a ballet academy, is perhaps most important, as her connection with the academy provides an in for the Fossil sisters to take up ballet. Academic doctors Jakes and Smith are important, too, volunteering to take over the sisters' daily schooling from poor, overwrought Sylvia, who isn't trained to educate three curious girls. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson have a crucial role to play, as well, particularly Mr. Simpson, an expert on vehicles and their maintenance who provides tomboy Petrova an outlet for her interest in cars and planes. The boarders are always there to take pressure off Sylvia and Nana when responsibility for the girls overwhelms them, offering opportunity for their future that Nana and Sylvia couldn't have engineered on their own.

It's anyone's guess how Sylvia will manipulate Gum's waning monetary reserves to last until (or if) he returns, but she catches a break when the Fossils are accepted into the ballet academy, which lifts some of the burden of teaching them from the two doctors and Sylvia. Fair-haired, blue-eyed Pauline, an attractive girl in all respects, shows an affinity for the stage immediately, though her talents tend more toward acting than dance. Petrova, a skinny brunette of somewhat pale complexion, isn't sure she likes acting or dance, but she knows it helps Sylvia to have her at the academy during the day, so she dutifully goes through the motions of dance lessons. Redheaded Posy, an amusing mix of impishness and delicate dignity, is a prodigy from toddlerhood, dancing en pointe before her older sisters can manage the awkward position, a budding prima ballerina who receives one-on-one instruction from the academy's Madame, a privilege given no other girl. Learning to perform is endless fun for Pauline and Posy, who were born to delight audiences, but all three girls recognize that if they progress as performance artists they may soon be in position to aid Sylvia financially, as girls in British theater are allowed to apply for a work permit at age twelve. As each Fossil sister comes of age and applies for their permit, the fun only elevates, but so does the pressure to live up to expectations and the work required to do so. Earning roles in the theater and even, dare they consider it possible, the motion picture industry, is tough competition, and talent alone can't bridge every gap. The money situation at home fluctuates between decent and miserable, but the girls do everything in their power to grow what meager resources are left at Sylvia's disposal, and the boarders are happy to lend a hand when they can, supporting the Fossils through their own ways and means. A childhood in professional entertainment is a grand escapade, and every tale of Pauline, Petrova, and Posy's youth brims with excitement, thoughtfulness, and the magic of love, but their grandest adventures may come after the book is finished. This is the sweetest truth of Ballet Shoes or any transcendent literature: what's yet to come in life promises the possibility of more enchantment than we've ever known, taking us places we never dreamed we'd go. A story never ends with its final page because there's always more to see, know, and experience. Life is the adventure that doesn't quit, all the way to the end.

Ah, there are so many episodes in this lustrous novel that deserve individual appreciation. Petrova feels stymied by hours of daily ballet instruction, but finds release as she gets to know Mr. Simpson. The man loves to tinker with his automobile, and offers to clue Petrova in on the work, patiently explaining the ins and outs of auto repair. Petrova is cut out for labor like this, not the frills and elegance of ballet. When Mr. Simpson purchases a local garage to service cars for a living and invites Petrova to join him whenever her schedule permits, she is elated: finally, a way to regularly engage her mechanical knowhow. Without Mr. Simpson in the story, Petrova would likely be left out of a lot of what happens in Ballet Shoes, but happily that isn't the case. Pauline's first big acting part, as Alice in Alice in Wonderland, is a dream sprung to life, but she isn't immune to the vanity that tempts every burgeoning star. She grows overly proud of her early accomplishments, and the story of how she overcomes her temporarily brattish affect is sweet and affirming. Pauline and Petrova's roles in a stage production of King Richard the Third make for an equally absorbing tale, as does Posy's clash with the academy instructors when Madame is sent back to Switzerland for several months to convalesce from a serious illness. Posy grew haughty about her own considerable dance skills since her inaugural days as Madame's private pupil, though haughty in an inexplicably delightful manner, and she refuses to join any public ballet class at the academy after years of solo instruction. To dance with the bourgeoisie would be an insult to her blossoming genius. Posy is an uproariously entertaining figure from age four or five on, daintily dancing en pointe before diverging into hilarious parodies of other well-known dance personalities from the academy. Only Madame is allowed to see Posy's true dance proficiency; for everyone else she sticks to comedic interpretations, so the scope of her talent remains a mystery even for the reader. Posy is no shrinking violet, however: as a six-year-old scarcely months into Madame's training regimen, Posy would get a dance idea and commence executing it regardless where she was, just to see if her feet could deliver on the concept she visualized. Pauline and Petrova are chagrined by Posy's lack of self-consciousness and plead with the grownup watching over them to have her stop, but Posy isn't showing off when she dances in public. She's merely acting in harmony with the movements that start in her head and spread to her limbs, obeying their artistic mandate. I daresay every story in Ballet Shoes that features Posy invariably delivers a smile. There is so much to be entertained by and to love about all three Fossils.

Then there are the tidbits of wisdom, thought, challenge, revealing humor, and social comparison that fuel Ballet Shoes, too many to cover comprehensively in this review. You'll come across them when you read the book yourself, lucky reader. Pauline, Petrova, and Posy are impressed by Doctors Jakes and Smith, and both women take time to share their expertise with the girls, a boon to their intellectual growth. Doctor Jakes is an esteemed professor of literature who studies symbolism and writing technique, so Pauline is taken aback when the doctor refers to Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit as "very good reading." Pauline: "Do you think Peter Rabbit good reading? I would have thought a person who taught literature was too grand for it." Doctor Jakes: "Not a bit—very old friend of mine." Much like what Noel Streatfeild achieved in her own kids' books, Beatrix Potter created stories of wonderful entertainment and wisdom for children, masterpieces meriting no less admiration because of their accessibility to young readers. The best children's lit takes big ideas and makes them understandable for everyone, not just intellectual elites, and in my opinion there's no higher accomplishment than that. I love that Doctor Jakes feels the same way. She also stokes the fires of the Fossils' ambition by encouraging them to do good and endeavor to somehow write their names in the history books. Their humble origin as a trio of foundlings can't prevent them from excelling in any field they choose. "Making your name worthwhile is a very nice thing to do; it means you must have given distinguished service to your country in some way", Doctor Jakes tells Pauline. That's a fine goal for anyone, and the Fossil sisters are capable of it.

Prior to Pauline's ego troubles due to her smash success playing the role of Alice, she has an earlier, less prolonged episode of thinking too highly of herself in ballet class, but the teacher brings her back to earth. Pauline is a beautiful, talented girl who will never be left wanting for admirers, but she needs to realize in her formative years that it's no good to have a swelled head. With Pauline despondent after being chastened about her preening, a ballet teacher relates an anecdote of how she learned humility, and gives Pauline a simple truth to keep in mind: "Never forget that an actress can always learn until her last hour...It never matters whom you watch, you can always learn. Always, always, always, always." If you consider yourself above learning from the example of others, you cut yourself off from everything they have to teach you. The wise and supremely skilled attain preeminence by soaking up every helpful bit they can, for one can always improve if one isn't content to stand pat. Pauline learns a similar lesson during her Alice in Wonderland snafu. Doctor Jakes calls it the most important lesson for an actress, "that today's success is easily nobody at all tomorrow." You should recognize how special your triumphs are and cherish them; there's no guarantee they'll happen again. The world has a sad habit of forsaking the talented for the next big thing, paying more heed to novelty than once-in-a-generation talent. Fame is fleeting, and won't court the contemptuous forever.

Ballet Shoes is a storehouse of rewarding characters, none more so than gruff, businesslike Nana, whose actions never fail to betray her devotion to the girls when her words refuse to follow suit. When it's just her and Pauline at the house after the eldest Fossil is disciplined for her supercilious attitude on the Alice in Wonderland set, Nana comforts her with good food, a soothing bath, and words to salve her wounded heart. "You eat all that, dear, and stop fretting. Pride has to come before a fall, and that's the law of nature; you've got your fall, and now you've got to be brave and get up again." Nana is an indispensable figure in the lives of the young Fossils, and she loves her girls so. Her countenance may be austere, but there's nothing she won't do for Pauline, Petrova, or Posy. The theater can be a difficult place to grow up, moral landmines buried everywhere waiting to detonate under innocent footsteps, and Pauline isn't the only Fossil who needs to be careful not to let narcissism hijack her moral character. "It was all very well to be ambitious, but ambition should not kill the nice qualities in you." If you gain the wealth and adulation of the world but lose what makes you a worthwhile person, you're worse off than if you never rose to prominence. We want Pauline, Petrova, and Posy to remain the same homespun girls from humble beginnings we came to love, the girls we cheer for all through Ballet Shoes because they've made a home in our heart and become our precious friends. With the guidance of so many grownups who care about them, they should be okay as they scale the ladder of accomplishment to heights rarely seen. And we won't ever forget how it felt to be part of their lives.

Quality children's novels from British authors were commonplace in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but that doesn't mean they were any less terrific. Ballet Shoes is a classic, a lovely story worth rereading as frequently as you wish. You'll not only learn something, but also feel a welcome part of a refreshingly hodgepodge unrelated family that's the envy of all. Wherever its members may scatter, they'll always be connected, and that's a meaningful comfort as the narrative winds to an end. I'm so grateful for Ballet Shoes, and my heart leaps at the prospect of other novels by the same author. Nicely done, Noel Streatfeild. You're a treasure among treasures in children's literature.

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but, sadly, I did not become a fan of Ballet Shoes. I am disappointed to say that it took me three weeks to finally get to the end of this little book, and I just don't feel the love. It's the story of three girls who are adopted by an eccentric fossil collector. The girls all are given unusual (for the time) opportunities to develop their talents, and they struggle to help their guardian provide for them financially. Maybe it is so beloved because all three girls do seize-the-day, and that was a rare thing during the thirties when this book was written.

Originally published in both ENG and RO on my blog:
http://vanillamoonblog.com/2013/02/22...

I must admit that what first got me interested in this book was seeing the movie with Emma Watson as Pauline in 2007. However, six years have passed until I actually decided: I want to read this book. Another important factor in my decision to read it was also the Pre-1960′s Classic Children’s Books Reading Challenge hosted by Turning the Pages I am participating in this year. But how and why I read this book is not as important as how great it turned out to be!

From the first sentence, I felt transported to the time I was ten and reading books like “The Secret Garden” or “Little Women”. There is a certain feel these old children’s books have and nostalgia accompanied me until the last page. It seems that my fear of not liking children’s books at my age was unfounded.

"If other girls had to be one of us, which would they choose?"

Pauline was by far my favourite character, perhaps because she was the oldest of the three children, and thus more mature, a leader if I can call her like that. Rational, ambitious, learning from her past mistakes, unaware of her beauty and ready to sacrifice her savings to help paying the bills, the much needed clothes and so on…

However, the mystery of this novel is Posy. The book mostly follows Pauline’s evolution, and as Petrova is usually in the same theatrical pieces as Pauline is, we don’t get to “see” much of Posy. Her training with Madame Fidolia is kept under secret too, so we can only guess what kind of ballet moves she is taught.

The book is mostly about how these three girls are growing up, balancing studying, training for their careers and actually working as performers on stage. It is, consequently, slow-paced and descriptive, however it doesn’t lack in humorous moments. For instance, when Gum (Great Uncle Matthew) brings the orphan Pauline to her 16 year-old niece, Sylvia, who is reluctant in taking her, he says:

"I thought all women like children!"

Posy is also a “little monster” who mocks everyone’s behaviour by imitating them in a hilarious way, a “talent” of her most visibile in the second half of the book.

I recommend “Ballet Shoes” to children of all ages, and to adults who want to remember their childhood.