Do children still read Noel Streatfield?

[shreddies]

I'd love to buy my niece Ballet Shoes, but I wonder if it's very dated. Ditto E Nesbit. She's eight and a half and a big reader but I don't want to buy her something that isn't quite right.

they are definitely still very popular in our library

yes definitely.

my dd loves all the old stuff.

she is obsessed with ballet shoes

I read them to dd and she loves them- she could easily read them to herself but we quite like sharing them. I would have said Ballet Shoes at 8.5 would be great

Yes, dated but yes, still popular (even if they have silly new American "xxx Shoes" titles they didn't start out with)

Ballet Shoes is dateless, IMHO

i got my 8 year old neice ballet shoes for christmas, all the girls in her class are streatfeild fans now. plus, remember ballet shoes was on over the holidays so there's every chance she saw that already. definitely get her it!

re 'dated', they were dated when i read them in the late 70s, didn't mean i couldn't LOVE them.

Oh fantastic! I feel all goosepimply at the thought of her getting to read it. I adored it.
What about E. Nesbit?

I hope they do!
I'll bet she loves it
agree with Aitch, they were already dated when I read them, it doesn't really matter though! part of their charm

I loved Caldicott Place and have just bought it for my dd.

Oh yes, Nesbit is always a winner. How about some William Mayne too ?

I adored the Wells books as a child - they are terribly dated, and I suck at dancing, but they entranced me

My 8yo DD loved Ballet Shoes too. (Title is deceptive, I always thought. Not much of it is about ballet)

She's been reading lots of Enid Blyton too lately

I'd say classic, not dated

I will still buy it for my dd in a few years.

Nothing was more dated than Enid Blyton.

Golly it was uncanny! You get used to it after the first few pages. A good book is a good book.

i loved the swish of the curtain as well. i think kids love that grubby glamour, really.

Thats another great one - but apart from them being allowed to do up the hall, it doesn't date so badly somehow.

Now you've made me think about it, will have to find where it is in the house and read it. Again.

by the way, if we're playing ballet shoes, i'm Petrova.

aitch aitch aitch do you know the hall in swish of the curtain is MY church hall where I do my work?

honest truly

oh and signing in as resident MN Streatfeild bore

Wow I loved the Wells books too and have recently reread some of them - I still have them all. I was in quite love with Guy and very in love with Sebastian. And on a name thread the other day when someone suggested Stella I immediately thought of Stella and her lovely artist Jonathon.

Re: Ballet Shoes, agree - it was dated for me 25 years ago - but made zero difference. It was the book I read most between say 10 and 13. I also adored The Painted Garden.

I love ballet names. Frannyandzooey, if you have a girl, what about Margot, Sylvie, Viviana, or...... Gemma!!!

Board crossover I know. You're probably fed up of names.

Damn you I want to be Petrova. Did you see Garnie getting the love interest in the television thing? I was very .

oh no I am FINE for girls names, I have girls names coming out of my ears

(big Antonia Forest fan if that gives any clues)

thank you though Madame C

really? gosh, that's thrilling. and i actually Mean That.

one thing, though, i don't get how you lot all remember so much detail of the books you read when younger. i read them all, but i actually remember not a great deal.

hmmm. I must read STreatfield again. Must admit, older childrne's books are often very overly-descriptive and unexciting compared to new children's books.

yes, REALLY really
they recently repainted the door blue, bless them

erm, i remember them because I, erm, still read them

lol no19, no you must be that prig pauline. har har.

Oh I always like Petrova best - she was definitely the most interesting. I reread it recently - God, it was wonderful.