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Ballet ShoesNoel Streatfeild
Ballet Shoes
by Noel Streatfeild
Three unrelated orphan girls are collected by an absent-minded fossil hunter and raised as sisters, then sent to stage school to earn the household's keep.
A story about children and families, warm and thoughtful in tone. We would put it with children of 8–11, and at a reading age of about 9 for reading alone.
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Our take on this book
Three orphaned baby girls are collected by an eccentric fossil-hunting great-uncle, left with his niece, and raised as the Fossil sisters — Pauline, Petrova and Posy — who vow to make their name their own. When the money runs short they are sent to a stage school, where one longs to act, one to fly aeroplanes, and one can only dance. Noel Streatfeild's 1936 classic is quietly radical: it is about girls earning their own living, discovering what they are for, and being wholly different from one another without any of them being wrong. The theatrical world is rendered with insider detail, and the pleasure is watching three real characters grow up and choose their paths. There is no peril to speak of, just the ordinary drama of ambition and not-quite-enough money. For an eight- to eleven-year-old it is a warm, absorbing story that has made generations want to be Petrova, or Posy, or all three.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
When Hitler Stole Pink RabbitJudith Kerr
Coming to EnglandFloella Benjamin
HeidiJohanna Spyri
The Family from One End StreetEve Garnett
The Railway ChildrenE. Nesbit
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery
Or let them write their own.
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