I had two career goals as a little girl--I would be a ballerina...or a librarian, heh.
Well I started ballet at three and continued through college, but alas never made it to the big stage. I am a librarian though so go figure.
I loved these books so much as a child. All of her series that I read I should say, but especially ballet shoes. This is a fascinating vanished world.

An absolute comfort read, I read this endlessly as a child, despite showing very little ability towards acting, dance or mechanics.

The quiet feminist streak running throughout this is wonderful; whilst Petrova is initially encouraged towards dance and drama to become more 'girly', her talents and aspirations to become a pilot are always taken entirely seriously and encouraged by those around her.

I can't quite believe it's taken me until the age of 34 to realise that the Shakespeare-loving spinster academics Dr Jakes and Dr Smith are very obviously a couple (or as obvious as a lesbian couple can be in a 1930s childrens' novel, at least).

Did I read this just because of the You've Got Mail film? Why, yes. Yes, I did. No regrets.

I listened to the BBC radio drama production.

Do you remember in that movie called "You've Got Mail" starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan where Meg is sitting in Fox Books and is sort of watching everything around her both sadly and contemplatively, because she lost her haven of a bookstore, but she loves seeing others who love books--even if it's at the corporation that she dislikes? Do you remember?

And do you remember when some lady walks up behind Meg and starts talking to the store helper and asks if they've got a book that her daughter (or granddaughter, I forget which, if either) wants and it's called something with shoes. The guy's all like, "Um...." until Meg speaks up, kind of wistfully, in the way she can, "Ballet Shoes. There's also Theatre Shoes, and Dancing Shoes, and..."

Remember?

Well, this is that book.



And it's a good book. Maybe it's not my favorite, but that's all right. I love dancing, and Noel Streatfield creates such a realistic setting, I wonder if she was a dancer herself. Her characters have a wonderful learning curve, too.

n  It was all very well to be ambitious, but ambition should not kill the nice qualities in you.n

Reading this just made me happy. Ridiculous, but true.

It's really a lovely book, with strong, sensible characters.

I needed to listen to something quick and chose this mostly because there’s a character named Sylvia in it. It was pleasant with likable characters and a lovely little family. There were some fat phobic parts I could have lived without. And it’s so strange to read about little kids having to work to keep the family afloat! But the time period makes sense of that and it feels pretty relatable to read about a family struggling financially throughout the novel. Heck, I might even pick up the sequel.

3.5

2.5 Stars

I have a confession to make: I didn't like this book. Not really. Pauline, Petrova and Posy just didn't win me over like I thought they would. Maybe part of this is due to the fact that I am not a child, and therefore not the intended audience for this book. But this has not been a problem for me in the past, as I often really enjoy children's books. To start off with, the premise of the book was a little silly. Three sisters, Pauline, Petrova and Posy are found by their Great Uncle Matthew, or as they call him, Gum, in various locations around the world. Gum sends the three girls back to his home in England to be looked after by his niece, Sylvia, and Nana. So in reality, the three girls are only sisters by adoption. The three girls are very different: Pauline loves to act, Petrova is fascinated by motors and cars, and Posy is a beautiful dancer. Ballet Shoes follows the adventures of these three girls as they grow and realize their passions, all while struggling to make money for their family after Gum disappears.

Does Gum sound bizarre to you? That's because he is. The plot of the story (what little of a plot there is) revolves around him, as he is the source of their money, and therefore of their monetary difficulties when he disappears. We don't actually see Gum until the end of the novel, when he miraculously appears again and acts as if he has not been gone at all. The ending of the book was particularly problematic for me; it all just felt very rushed and sudden. It is decided that Posy will go with Nana to Czechoslovakia to be trained as a dancer, while Pauline is going to Hollywood with Sylvia to be an actress. This leaves Petrova to Gum's guidance. Gum seems like an incredibly unsuitable guardian to me. Petrova barely knows the man, yet she's more than willing to live with him and say goodbye to her sisters? It really just made no sense to me.The whole presence of Gum was strange for me and I disliked how the three girls were just thrown together and then left to be cared for by their two guardians.

The other aspect of the book that I just couldn't get past was the tediousness of it all. Every outfit was explained (and there were a lot of them) and every penny the girls earned was counted for. I understand why there was such a focus on money, but the constant description of the clothes was tiresome. Part of this may be due to my own ignorance of the time period, however, as I was somewhat unfamiliar with exactly what each item of clothing actually referred to. Regardless, there were still too many descriptions of clothing for my taste. There was no real interesting plot, just constant stage shows and training and the same problems over and over again. The girls need new clothes. The money is running out. Will they get the part in this play or this dance? Nothing really happened, and the things that did happen were resolved so unrealistically and problematically for me at the end of the book that it just increased my dislike.

So if I disliked this book so much, then why did I give it 2.5 stars? Because I think, were I a child, I probably would have enjoyed it slightly more. What young girl doesn't dream of being in a ballet at least once in her life? Hell, I still dream about it. I can see young girls putting themselves in Pauline's, or Petrova's or Posy's position and imagining that they too are on stage. The characters were charming, and the story sweet, but I just found some things to be lacking and the story less charming than it could have been.

Should probably have read this 35 years ago!

I read it because someone mentioned that a character in my current work-in-progress reminded her of a grown-up Petrova Fossil and I was intrigued. Can I just say here that it is INEVITABLE that Petrova grow up and join the Air Transport Auxiliary--she is already buzzing around in planes at the age of thirteen in 1933 and it is clear that when she hits 20 in 1940, and has had her pilot's license for the past 4 years or so, she will have no other desire in the universe but to fly Spitfires for the ATA.

OK, that obviously has nothing to do with the plot of Ballet Shoes, but it is my comment!

I really enjoyed the verisimilitude of this rather wacky book--the premise of these 3 orphaned girls being brought up in a house full of an absent madman's rock collection, having to support themselves on the stage, would be utterly unbelievable without the installation of licenses and bread-and-butter and boredom and the occasional camping trip. A good example is the way they have to scrounge for new clothes--they pawn their watches and borrow a bit from one of the lodgers, then go out and buy yards and yards of organdie, whatever that is, and everybody in the house including the cook is impressed into producing a new dress by tomorrow morning. Well, somebody has got to "whip the frills"! Definitely a lost art. They even make their own sleeping bags when they go camping!

Sara tried to read this and found it a bit dull. The prose is definitely dated. It dates me, too, I suppose, that I find it much easier to read than most contemporary children's fiction.

It's not great fiction. It's not classic children's fiction. But it wasn't meant to be, not even at the time. It's meant to be fantasy wish fulfillment for little girls, who like the three Fossil sisters, dream of being in the history books--and not because of their grandfathers.

For any little girl who has dreamed of leaving her family behind and living in a rambling old house full of adults who are not her parents, and enjoy spoiling you just a bit. For any little girl who has dreamed of ditching "regular" school and being taught at home, or going to a different kind of school. For all the little girls, of whatever age, who dream of being dancers, singers, actresses--or car mechanics, this is your read.

Yes, it's implausible. And I found the girls' names just a tad grating. "Pauline, Petrova and (ugh) Posy"--??? I guess it's because I've known parents who had like 5 kids and named them beginning with the same letter that I had such a knee-jerk reaction against them, but really now--Petrova? And I've met a few Poppys---but Posy? How "precious"! The wrap is a tad too convenient; the book was published in 1936; one wonders how safe it was for little Posy to go off to Czechoslovakia and study dance...given the events in about three years after that.

BUT--if you are looking for "realistic" children's literature, don't read any more of the Shoe books. That's not what they're for. My hometown library only had a copy of Circus Shoes, which I read again and again (and would continue to read if I could get a copy). Of course real children don't run off and join the circus, or go to theatre school, or become dancers at the age of eight. Not most of them, anyway. But then, real children don't go to wizard school, do they?

A cosy, comforting night-time read for all the little girls who never made the history books.

Perfect for Christmas, not convinced by the narrator.

I'm sorry, Susann, but this will be my only Shoes book.

I found it sweet but unsatisfying. I just couldn't care about anyone but Petrova, and even she was a little marshmallow-y. There was never any real doubt about how it would end, or if the latest character would be interested in helping the girls or even if one or another would get any given part. All the self-sacrificing was... again, the only word I keep coming up with for this book is sweet. Sweet like white sugar, sweet like cotton candy, sweet like I need to read something wicked to get the stickiness washed out.