A wonderful reread of a childhood favourite.
Just perfect!

Great book!
A wonderful story of three girls choosing their own paths.
Would highly recommend.

I have read some of Noel Streatfeild's adult novels - including those written under the pen name of Susan Scarlett, but I don't think I have read her children's stories, (for which she is more famous).

This was a delightful story of three orphan girls, Pauline, Petrova, and Posy who go to stage school, and their attempts to make ends meet for themselves and their makeshift family. Lovely, whilst still being somewhat grounded in reality.

This book and I, we've known each other for a long long time. It is one of those books that has been in my life for forever, really, I can't quite remember a time without it. Without Noel Streatfeild, without the Fossils and without Cromwell Road and Madame Fidolia. It is something I cannot quite conceive of, the unknowing of these things.

Ballet Shoes is beautiful, iconic in its way, a story of stage and screen and of destiny. It is a story about impact, about the value of that impact, and about making your mark on a world who barely notes you exist. It is wonderful. It is my heart and oh how it fits.

Pauline, Petrova and Posy ("Her name is Posy. Unfortunate, but true") are foundlings, brought home by Great Uncle Matthew to his niece and her nanny. He is an adventerous soul, rather edibly Eccentrically English in his ways, and manages to bring the first of the girls home because "he had meant to bring Sylvia back a present. Now what could be better than this?" Petrova and Posy appear in similarly unusual circumstances and are promptly adopted into the swelling nursery.

It is then that Great Uncle Matthew (GUM) disappears for several, several years. With girls to look after and money running scarce, the newly named Fossil sisters, Sylvia and Nanny have to look into alternative strategies for funding. They get lodgers in (one, to Petrova's delight, brings their car: "it was a citroen car, and it's coming here as a boarder") and it is because of those lodgers that the Fossils' world is changed forever.

Streatfeild's great skill as a writer is that she has purpose in her prose. It is a sort of intensely matter of fact style of writing; her children have a place to be and a purpose in their being there. Every child in a Streatfeild book has a vocation, found by hook or by crook, and they are intensely content once finding it. Petrova, in Ballet Shoes, is a revelation. It's rare even now to see a girl in a book being surrounded by engines and cogs and yet Petrova is that girl and she's being written in a book which first saw life in 1935.

Petrova is, I think, my favourite. She is vividly practical in her skills and her "yes, well, you can dance but I'm going to finish building my submarine now" attitude is an intense delight. It's worth contrasting this attitude towards giftedness (the air of practical use and applicability of her skills) and contrast it against the more showy and impractical (I'm not sure if I mean that, but I'll leave it for now) skills of Posy and Petrova.

It's also interesting to note the crumpety-warm feeling of contentment that purveys this book. There are worrisome moments, yes, plenty, but there's never quite the feeling of concern that things Will Go Wrong. Because they don't, I don't think, not in a Streatfeild book. They may go wrong initially but then, it is through that wrongness, that we find the right.

And, to be frank, if it did go wrong and remain wrong, Petrova would be more than capable of fixing it.

First sentence: The Fossil sisters lived in the Cromwell Road.

Premise/plot: Pauline, Petrova, and Posy are the Fossil sisters--not related by blood, perhaps--but sisters all the same. Each was adopted by gum--Great Uncle Matthew. He is an ADVENTURER. And on three of his trips he brought home children--babies--instead of just fossils. While he is away, the children are being raised by Sylvia (Matthew's great-niece), Nana, and Cook. When money runs low, it's decided that they will take boarders. As the children grow they enter a special school that teaches acting, singing, dancing, performing. The children can begin earning money when they're twelve by performing...

The children have vowed repeatedly throughout the book to make the name of FOSSIL famous....will they?

My thoughts: I enjoyed rereading Ballet Shoes. It's been nine years since I've last read it! I definitely appreciated it more this time. That is one reason why I love to reread books. Sometimes once isn't enough.

Quotes:

They went to church--even Posy--and sang, "Hark, the Herald Angels," "O Come, All Ye Faithful," and "The First Noel." They had been afraid that perhaps they would only get one that they knew and the rest some dull tune that was supposed to belong to Christmas and did not really. (69)

I'm fond of all Noel Streatfeild's books, but this one, being the first I read, has a special place in my heart. It introduces Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil, orphans who are adopted by an eccentric geologist who then disappears for years, leaving the girls in the care of his niece Sylvia and her old nanny, Nana. When the money he left Sylvia runs out, they decide to send the girls to stage school.

The story and characters are lively and memorable, and Streatfeild describes the girls' training and their dreams and goals with warmth, humor, and a realism which makes the book come alive. I've probably read it twenty times or more, and I find it delightful every time.

Me ha parecido monísimo, entretenido y tierno, pero reconozco que esperaba un desenlace algo más elaborado, se me ha hecho precipitado, la verdad.

Aww this is a pretty cozy story! I have read Noel Streatfeild's Skating Shoes a long time ago but I only got around reading her most iconic book - Ballet Shoes, recently. I finally understood why Ballet Shoes is a timeless children's classic!

Set in 20th century London, Ballet Shoes is a story of three orphans following their career aspirations in dancing and acting. The main characters are the Fossil sisters: Pauline, Petrova, and posy - each has their own ambitions and I found their characterisation quite distinctive! With the story spanned over several years, Ballet Shoes illustrated the character development of each Fossil sister beautifully. In particular, I found Pauline's character very likeable and organic as she becomes more mature and independent as she goes through her career ups and downs in the novel. So I found myself rooting her while reading the book!

In terms of the plot, Ballet Shoes is considerably slow paced but luckily the slower pacing is offset by a solid characterisation and memorable stories. I found that narrated stories are quite cozy and heartwarming. While the main focus of Ballet Shoes is revolved around dancing, each Fossil sister's talent, and them following their dreams, this is also a story about family. And adding to that I found the Christmas scenes really cozy (so that's a perfect palette cleanser after reading a row of pretty heavy books)!

I also found the messaging of Ballet Shoes quite impactful. The settings and the description of the life at the Dancing Academy highlights the importance of hardwork and diligence - important attributes in the learning processes, and also the qualities we tend to overlook these days. Additionally, from the Fossil sisters' growth through the novel Noel Streatfeild also reiterates the danger of losing one's self & character from ambition & power.

To sum it up, Ballet Shoes is a heartwarming and character-driven tale about dancing, family, and also following your dreams.

N.B. Some of the vocabulary usage in Ballet Shoes are outdated (as this book is written in the 1930s) so this is something to be aware of.

3.5⭐️

Added to my “can’t-wait-to-have-a-daughter-and-read-through-this-book-chapter-by-chapter-and-have-long-conversations-about-it” book list. What a beautiful story!

Ballet Shoes is one of those books I wish I'd been able to read as a child. I would have loved to experience the lives of the Fossil girls through a child's eyes, and to have grown up with them.

Noel Streatfeild's beautiful book bewitched me with its simplicity, charm and humour. I was drawn in by the lives of Pauline, Petrova and Posy, empathising with their struggles as they grew up; laughing and crying with them over their successes and failures. Like the best children's stories, even though it's now more than three-quarters of a century old, it has hardly dated. Indeed, it seems like the passing years have only added to its charm, as all the little details of life in 1920s England give it a wholesome, almost fairy-tale like quality. (It's interesting from a historical perspective as well to read about the lives of child performers during the inter-war era). The book has the perfect blend of the ordinary (meals eaten, lessons taken, sewing dresses, making toffee and taking walks) and the magical (an explorer uncle who vanishes mysteriously, orphan children rescued from the Titanic and the Russian revolution, the huge cast of parental figures they have to protect and guide them).

There's also the theme of poverty which, much like in The Secret Garden, runs as a darker current throughout the book. Streatfeild definitely comes down on the side of those who believe that a little hardship is good for children, and that working for a living at the age of 12 is no bad thing. Although her characters live in a pre-Depression era, the book was written in 1936, so hard work, thrift and charity are continuously held up as virtuous traits - though Streatfeild is never didactic, and never preachy. As in all the best children's books, she instructs by delivering a compelling story and making us fall in love with the virtues and lives of the characters.

Of course, in the character of Winifred - the talented but mousey girl who never gets the part - we see the dark side of poverty; unlike the well-cared for Fossil children, her family is truly poor and there isn't much hope that she'll end up with a successful career. She is the sad, dark mirror of the challenging but ultimately happy lives of the Fossils.

There is perhaps, in the inevitable return of Great-Uncle Matthew (coinciding as it does with the the changing fortunes of Posy and Pauline), a little too much of the deus ex machina, but that's what we expect from a children's book isn't it? I'm willing to forgive it in the delight of reading a well-told tale.

i MUST read this soon!!