I read this a while ago, and while I don't remember it too well, I was really bored by it. Unless someone gives me a reason to re-read it, I'm rating it a 1. Please comment

Positively the weakest Streatfield I've ever read. Interesting depiction of how children experienced the end of WWII; otherwise forgettable.

I bought as many of Noel Streatfeild's Shoes books as I could find off eBay last week and I've spent this week reading them. This one I missed when I was a girl, and I can't say I find it as engaging as many of the others. Like many of Streatfeild's books, this is set during WW2. Selina lives with her cousins; her parents are prisoners of war in Hong Kong, and her godmother lives in America. Her godmother sends her a fabulous evening dress and shoes, and she and her cousins concoct a pageant, to be held in the backyard of the local Abbey (I imagined this as a very down-at-the-heels Downton Abbey, years after the staff had long left). A great deal of the book is logistics around the pageant, and I think something is lost to the modern reader as most of us have no idea what a pageant is. It's sort of like a grand wordless play/spectacle, I suppose. As another reviewer said, I didn't connect with the characters as much as I usually do in Streatfeild's books, but the writing and setting is so charming that I enjoyed it regardless.

This classic for children was originally published under the title 'Party Frock'. It's the story of a pageant, an idea that grows after Selina is sent a gorgeous dress and satin shoes from the USA, shortly before the end of World War II. Her cousins are highly motivated, in different ways, but the pageant would have been a small and rather disjointed affair had it not been for Philip, home from the war with an injured arm.

Realistic people, a plot that feels believable (if unlikely), some humour, some tear-jerking moments, and a great story. One of my childhood favourites, and I was delighted to find that it was back in print.

Highly recommended to children who like this kind of fiction, and nostalgic adults like myself who read Noel Streatfeild avidly in our childhood and teens.

Four and a half stars, really.

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I did like this book when I first got it when I turned 8 in 2004. It also taught me a little bit about what life was like in those days too. My mom read it to me. Of course some parts were too much for me back then. A true children's classic. It was a birthday present. Yesterday I reread it for the first time in several years.

What an existing book this is.
I think I might have been too young when I read this- I my mind, all that was happening was planning a party and Phoebe was whining. Perhaps I will see that there is more that met my fourteen year old brain when I re-read it, some day.

I held off reading this cos party frocks seemed not my thing but it's excellent. Good set of characters and an very strong plot

I'm sorry, but I am so bored. This is way different than the other wonderful books in the series, and there is just so much happening while nothing happens, I can't finish it. "A children's book that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's book in the slightest"

If you knew this existed and didn't tell me: Shame on you.
I found this on a shelf by a happy accident, and look forward to enjoying it.

What an extreme disappointment. I'm a huge fan of Noel Streatfeild's books, and when I found this somewhat recently, I was thrilled at the thought of a new "Shoes" book that I had somehow missed reading as a child.

Well, I finally had time to read this, and it was horrible.

There isn't much of a plot - Selina gets a party frock, and the family plans a pageant so she can wear it - but there also wasn't much of a plot in Streatfeild's similar Family Shoes (which is less theatrically based than her other Shoes books, which revolve around acting or dancing).

However, in Family Shoes, the characters are all fully realized. Family Shoes and its sequel, New Shoes, are my favorite Streatfeild books, as evidenced by the battered conditions of their covers. The characters in Party Shoes seem like mash-ups of characters from her other books, and never become real.

I don't know where in her bibliography Party Shoes falls, but it seems like either a very early effort or very late effort. I had to immediately start re-reading Family Shoes to get the taste of this disappointment out of my head.

I think this book was kind of boring. It took a really long time for me to get interested, and when it did get a little interesting, it wasn't very intriguing.

Somehow I missed this one when I was growing up. I devoured many others in the Streatfield's "Shoes" books. It's World War II in England. Selina's parents are in an internment camp in the Far East so she is living with cousins in rural England. She receives a package from her godmother which contains a beautiful party dress and shoes.Of course there's no place to wear them. The children hit upon the idea of staging a pageant that will allow Selina to wear the dress and shoes. Over the course of the year, the children write and rehearse the pageant which grows from a small production to one involving what seems like a cast of 1000s. It's not one of Streatfield's more engaging books, and I never really connected with any of the characters. I do enjoy the descriptions of the mundane events of life: tea, chores, school tasks, etc. I also enjoy her writing style and tone, very "stiff upper lip" and proper. It probably won't appeal to most of the readers in my class because it is dated. But a few might enjoy it.

Ahhh this one still perfect, Philip still a massive crush