I'm giving this book 5*, not because it's flawless, but because it's an incredibly involving read, particularly the final third. In fact, if the entire book was as good as the end, it would be 5*++++

The first third is very Noel Streatfield, with 2 children--Doone and Crystal--the focus of the text. The young boy Doone is unusual because he's a boy who loves ballet, and his mother instead lavishes her attention and dance dreams on Crystal. Crystal is a showy, theatrical girl, conning her way into getting on pointe before she really should, but all the "good" characters marvel at Doone's talent, his acting ability and stage presence, and his ability to play music by ear.

Crystal gets knocked down a peg when she loses a competition, and here is when the book begins to climb out of the YA genre. It's interesting up to this point, and very detailed in its observations of the ballet world, but the good boy vs. bad girl contrasts are laid on a bit thick. A lesser author would have just had the "bad" Crystal give up dance and find boys or try to cheat her way to the top. But Crystal is capable of change and really buckles down, casting off the showy clothes her mother made for her.

So Crystal has a CTJ moment, and begins to view her dancing in a serious way. She gets into a top ballet school. But this is partially because they also want her brother. If Doone was a bit less of a fairy perfect child with buckets of talent, I'd have appreciated this even more--let's be honest, he's a talented boy, while girls who love ballet like Crystal are a dime a dozen, no matter how talented. No one says this, though. It's all, ooh, it's so hard to be a boy in ballet.

But Crystal IS very talented. She's an excellent dancer, with professional capabilities, she just doesn't quite have the whiff of genius about her that her brother is said to have, and the second half of the book is her wrestling with this. It's far more nuanced than the "Doone is so talented." Even the stage mother is capable of soul-searching as a character--she does nurture her children's talent and sacrifices a lot for them, including stepping out of the spotlight when she realizes they're better off getting serious instruction rather than following her tatty advice.

The final third--when Crystal develops an impossible crush on an older male dancer and choreographer and, when rejected, goes through a night of hell both physically and mentally--is just stunning writing and worth waiting for.

I recommend this book highly, despite its flaws. Godden is from the ballet world, and also did considerable research to produce this text, and this insider's view really shines forth on all the pages. I just wish the book had a better cover. All of the editions I've seen of them are terrible. Will be reading more from this author.

This is one of my all time favourite books. I love how the author portrays Doone’s character... hooked.

Sometimes reading a children's book takes you back and makes you appreciate what amazing things books are and what a privilege it is to be able to read them. The first book I really remember enjoying reading was by this author and I loved reading this one too.

Godden explores the strength and vulnerability of children, but best of all, true passion for dance.

Want to re-read.

Young Doone Penny want to practice ballet more than anything else and has a gift for it. Though his father doesn't want him to do ballet and though his sister is very jealous at his obvious talent, he persists and gets one of the most important roles a young boy can get in the world of ballet.
This is a story of remarkable talent and daring to do what you love, no matter what the world around you thinks.

An engaging read that made me want to dance again. I enjoyed the character development and the fact that the 'villains' don't remain villains. It was touching and didn't read like a kid's book.

Novelita interesante sobre el mundo del ballet, la competitividad, la presión de madres, la expectativa y prejuicios de la familia, maestros y compañeros, las famosas y los famosos, vivir todo ello a edades muy tempranas... en fin, un relato interesante sin gran sobresalto, pero bastante entretenido si les gusta el tema.

Thursday's Children should be read as part of our greater Rumer Godden revival. I dug it out of the misc. female authors pile by the desk when I was looking for something exquisitely beautiful to read a few weeks ago. The only other adult book I've read of Ms. Godden's was The Lady and the Unicorn, which turns out to be her first and worst book, but Holly and Ivy is one of the best Christmas orphan stories of all time (Christmas orphans!) and the Japanese doll books are incredible. Thursday's Children is certainly a book for grown-ups with grown-up comments and asides, but it is about children, which makes me wonder why anyone bothers with adult fiction when it's about children half the time anyway. It's structured in an interesting way, the only other place I've seen this is The Secret Garden, where one character arc spans half the book until its resolution when another character picks up the plot torch and runs another hundred pages to the end. (Thursday's Children is without the last Hail-Mary-redemption-of-the-hunchback-father-pass that rounds out Secret Garden). Concerning the Penny family, they're a greengrocer and wife in North London sometime back when the people were simple but middle class affluence was creeping in. Mrs. Penny desperately wants a daughter whom she can groom to be a famous dancer. Four sons later, she finally gets her daughter, Crystal, who is absolutely beautiful and everything her mother ever wanted and, while she's busy turning Crystal into Honey Boo Boo, she becomes accidentally pregnant with something she has no interest at all in and he ends up named Doone, as the parents were going to call him Lorna had he been a girl. Nobody wants Doone or bothers about him much except Beppo, the Italian tumbler who lives in the shed. Besides Beppo, with his early admonitions to keep limber and practice every day, Doone is a parasite on the side of whoever's stuck minding him, like Crystal who makes him carry her shoes when she goes to dance lessons at Madame Tamara's, where Doone is first enchanted by the ballet. Mrs. Penny is aggressive about Crystal's supposed prodigy and Doone tags along until he's accidentally noticed, and from then on Mrs. Penny makes them a package deal. Everyone hides this from Mr. Penny, who, when he does find out, can say that ballerinos are queers and he'll have none of it, because this is a book for grown-ups. Doone is bereft, but his life is one of exclusion and hard knocks so any one setback isn't as shattering as a combination of all the other setbacks together. His arc continues back to ballet school and up to the school of the Royal Ballet where he's finally found his place, and Crystal's story takes over. She's bound and determined to do something but she's also a moody adolescent whose passion isn't really ballet even though she's almost as talented as Doone and she's been raised to think she's the best. She's a bit spoiled and she's also in love with Yuri the special guest teacher at the Royal Ballet. And Crystal is great. Doone remains a child to the end of the book, he's still eleven or so, but Crystal manages to turn Thursday's Children into an awkward, early adolescent bildungsroman and it's perfect.

http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/20...

Rumer Godden is a good story teller from my childhood and frequent trips to the Alvin Bolster Ricker Memorial LIbrary and Community House in Poland, Maine, where any book about a place that wasn't Poland, Maine was exciting. Her writing is just that: plain old good story telling. She's sort of Anne Tyler with less bitter in the sweet, Rosamund Pilcher in 150 fewer pages, Mary Stewart without the heavy romance, Angela Thirkell without the uppercrust. I like her, but I'd almost completely forgotten about her, until I found two books by her at the church rummage sale in December, and here she is back!

First off, this edition of THursday's Children has, hands down, the ugliest cover I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. I am not an artist, and I am pretty sure I could draw a more normal looking child's face than the one adorning both front and back of the book. I finally removed the paper cover and threw it away--far to painful to look at!

Secondly, the story focused on ballet, and two kids in the same family who love it. As I think back through it, I realize that the characters are quite flat, the characterization virtually always direct, and Doone and his sister Crystal are both unrealistic children, but: I looked forward to curling up with the book for a few evenings. The book was published in 1984, which startled me: it feels like it was written in the 30's - 50's for some reason. Anyway. A pleasant read, so: three stars it is!

A bit sentimental, but every bit as good as I remember.

If you'd like a story that revolves around ballet, you'll love this. If you think you'd hate a story that revolves around ballet, you're (probably) mistaken: like all great stories, this one is actually about life and family and finding your place in the world and what it means to be successful. And, yes, it also involves ballet.

It's a beautiful story and well worth the effort it takes to track it down.