Ballet shoes. Noel Streatfeild

[Orangeanddemons]

Wow! It is fantastic isn't it? I'd forgotten how good it was!

Dd got some book vouchers for Christmas. Took her to get some books and found this. I bought it for me, and M reading it again. It wad my best boom ever when I was little, and it's still great now.

This version even has a bow on the cover! Dd hasn't even been able to get near it!

Morris, you will never succeed in getting the chair of children's literature if you confess you have never read Little Women or Ballet Shoes, even if you win Humiliation.

Seriously, I reread LW after reading a lot if Civil War history and it made much more sense to me. And Jo is an ur- feminist. Ditto all the Fossils, who know they need to support themselves and cannot rely on anyone else. Interesting portrayal of culture rich cash poor women, in both cases. Should be read alongside Hudson Burnett's book about Emily Seton who faces the workhouse it starvation when she gets old.

I found a first edition of Thursday's Child in a charity shop, complete with a personal message from Noel Streatfield completely smug emoticon

that was also the Painted Garden I had and have ordered!

jeee

TheNightIsDark Enjoy. Such a lovely story and great pictures.

Unfortunately I don't remember the series of Thursday's Child. I wonder if it's available on VHS or DVD anywhere? About ten years ago I managed to get a VHS copy of the 70s BBC Ballet Shoes. I much preferred it to the more recent version which was too fluffy! I think that quite a few of her stories would make good TV adaptations.

I've trained my DD well. Her school library contained all the Gemma books (albeit renamed, presumably to look more contemporary), and she got them all out for me. I love my DD. I bought her A Vicarage Family as a reward. For her, not for me, you understand.

In case anyone missed it up thread, I have a pdf copy of a short NS story called What Happened to Pauline, Petrova and Posy which I'm happy to email out. Just PM me.

I've just remembered - I 'wrote' a musical around the Painted Garden. I included such songs as 'We've got US' 'Wherever we go' and other appalling tunes I was inspired to include after watching a dire Tommy Steele 'special', I sent it to a chap called Michael White who was producing 'Annie' in the west end at the time. In my defence, I was 11!!

Funnily enough, it was never staged....

There's still time, MrsSippie. Just you wait

hee hee. It was BRILLIANT

Care to share the lyrics? It sounds fabulous

So, the bit where the children are worried about their father, they all hold hands and do a sort of dance singing 'some people say we, crazy the way we are, but through it all we don't fuss...we don't care what the world says - WE GOT US!' and sort of dance about a bit. Then in America, they dance merrily around the garden and sing 'Wherever we go, whatever we do, we're gonna go through it together...we may not go far but sure as a star, wherever we are, we're TOETHER'. That's about all I remember. I think Jane has a sad/angry song about 'being me, no-one can see, how sad it is to be me'.. And Rachel does a bit of ballet.

Sounds fantastic just sat and watched Annie

Sorrel id love it but I can't pm you! Am trying!!

I love Noël Streatfield's books and really enjoy reading them to my DD - she's more a fan of modern stuff like Jacqueline Wilson but I'm determined she'll know some classic stuff one way or another! We've done the whole Gemma series and The Painted Garden which is one of my favourites (and funnily enough we also read Carbonel recently Jules) and she's really enjoying them. This thread has reminded me to look for some others that she might like - think The Growing Summer would be a good one.

Tennis Shoes is a good read and a bit different from some of the others.

Thanks MrsSippie - the next time I read The Painted Garden I'll be imagining Jane singing a sulky solo! I'm impressed that (a) you wrote a musical at 11 and had the chutzpah to send it off, and (b) you still remember at least some lyrics (that's unless you're a very precocious 15 year old).

SorrelForbes, Tennis Shoes is DD's favourite Noel Streatfield.... she regularly comments about the umbrellas for birthday and Christmas!

Ooh yes, that seemed so mean when I read it as a child, now it sounds really useful!

Haha! I wish - it was around 1977 I think - when Annie had just come to London - I wanted desperately to be in it :(

Feels weird when people talk about these books now, like I'm missing out. I can't see me reading them now, its all about childhood memories isn't it.

I don't agree - if a book's well-written, you can read it at any age. Well, you might have to be old enough/be a good enough reader, but once you're past that, your age won't matter. And rereading children's books as an adult, I find I do get different things from them, and see different things I wouldn't have noticed as a child, but now I've lived a bit, and have a different perspective on parts of life.

A link to The Whicharts which is well worth a read.