Any recommendations for ballet-themed novels for an 8 year old?

Yes, a woman. Puts a different perspective on things, doesn't it? I must say I used to like the emphasis on the cost of things and having to work and making do. When I read her books (early to mid-70s) I was growing up in similarly reduced circumstances (does genteel poverty still exist I wonder) and appreciated reading about a family that was struggling but making do.

Did anyone here see the recent BBC production of Ballet Shoes? Not bad I thought, but why did they have to spoil it with a love interest!

So, she was Mary Noel Straetfield, known as Noel.

Glad to have cleared that up in my mind.

I always assumed Noel S was a bloke??!

Anyone know otherwise? I'm off to google...

I think someone called Marla Kay wrote some books about ballet - my little sister appears to have adopted my old copies (but that's fine, it just means they're at my mum's house not my own).

Jean Ure wrote Supermouse-also Nicola Mimosa (about the same girl), also A Proper Little Nooryeff-sic but not sure if i spelled it the way she did!-(about a boy dancing iirc)

girls gone by published some Lorna Hill more recently but they only do short print runs. They have a list of second hand dealers to try though.

LORNA HILL

definitely

but there is Nicola... someone... who also wrote ballet books, but with equal emphasis on the life going on outside the practice room. Something about Mouse - Supermouse?

I think they were all OBSESSED with cost in those days (i.e. pre about 1960 oh dear or is Streatfeild set later than that? I blame brain-cell loss through age and child-bearing if so). Have just read a set of George Orwell essays in which anything purchaseable may not pass through the narrative without having its commercial price noted and, usually, commented upon extensively.

Don't you find Noel Streatfeild just a tiny bit odd? - the precision about prescriptive uniform ("all girls aged over eight had to have four tunics, not longer than knee length, two in blue serge and two in an infinitesimally darker shade of blue serge that you'd not have been able to spot the difference unless you had a special gift and so deserved to be at the school. The darker ones were for Wednesday barre practice") and cost ("the children in the Saturday classes had to bring 2/4 with them each fortnight, and if they were doing tap it was an extra 9d").

It all reminds me of an acquaintance who had, you know, a palace job, and the stories he told about the mortification of being found wearing the subtly-wrongly-lapelled dress coat.

Not to be misunderstood, this all is part of the addictive charm (of NS, not the Palace), but don't you think it is curious?

By the way, it's the 'Book Sleuth' section you want for finding a book you cannot remember the details of forums.abebooks.co.uk/abesleuthuk.

I second (third?) the Noel Streatfield (I must have read ALL her books - is that a record?) and Lorna Hill recommendations and the good news is that www.abebooks.co.uk/ has plenty of options to purchase both at very low prices www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?an=lorna+hill&sortby=3&sts=t&tn=wells&x=0&y=0(Abebooks.co.uk is an excellent second hand market website that isn't in the thrawl of Amazon, much as I like Amazon ).

n.b. their Community section is great if you vaguely remember a book, but not its title. I am still amazed at someone guessing from my vague description that I was looking for the brilliant French children's book 'The Mystery of the Cross-Eyed Man'. Nothing to do with ballet by the way, I had eclectic taste as a child .

Hi - Not sure if anyone wants to purchase Usborne Books but I can get them for you. Please check on www.usborneonline.org/bevhorkan

there is a great anthology called Ballet Stories, ed Harriet Castor, which has chapters from a dozen of the best ballet books.

when my sister, aged 19, was doing a gap year in australia, i sent it to her as an xmas present and, even at that aged age, she was most grateful

i nabbed it on her return and it rarely leaves my loo.

it's all kids stories, a couple of which may be a bit old for your daughter, but a great place to start.

oh yrs, the Scrambled Legs ones were rather good - I read my little sister's. They call the evil cliquey girls Bunheads...

Do they have to be incredibly serious?? I remember reading ballet themed books as a child, they were called scrambled legs I think, about a group of friends who do ballet....deffo not as highbrow as the other suggestions but funny light reads with a ballet theme

This is in Adult Fiction - what exactly goes on in these ballet books...

when did this appear? please dont tell me its always been here

Usborne has a whole series called Ballerina Dreams - just scroll down a little. They're very popular & for about 8+.

I got lots of Noel Streatfeild and others on Abebooks- they are wonderful

She sounds like me when I was about 11... sigh...

Blimey. Just did a search on noel streatfeild on Amazon and my goodness it brought back memories. Rather loved thursday's child, and of course, the shoes series. Particularly keen on White Boots - seemed very far removed from Streatham Ice Rink on a Saturday morning.

Antonia Barber also writes modern ballet stories - they're quite readable even from an adult perspective .

drina

Out of print books are often available in libraries.

The lorna hill's series were fab i remember absolutely loving them as a child, don't know if you get some used ones on amazon?