The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have been called the Golden Age for children’s books, especially, perhaps, books aimed at girls. Noel Streatfeild (1895-1986) Courtesy of Wikipedia My own, very worn, copy has the original illustrations by Ruth Gervis (1894-1988) which I’ve always thought were just right. Overall, I would say this is one of my favourite books of all time and I think is the perfect read for girls for almost any age.Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes(1936) was one of my favourite books as a child and I suspect that many other girls have also loved it because, eighty-two years later, it is still in print. Yes, we might not all have a GUM to save us at the end of the day from financial woes, yet the ingenuity and sheer grit of Nannie and Garnie when it comes to money-making make them, in my opinion, two of the most powerful and admirable women in literature. The family’s money troubles lie bubbling just below the veneer of ballet school glamour, the scrimping and saving all too familiar to many of us.

For if there is one thing this book is, it is hopeful. But eventually even Winifred has her day. The book doesn’t shy away from topics that might be conceived as sad or cruel the description of the plain and poor Winifred exposes the superficial discrimination that still dogs women to this day. Petrova, forever ostracised in the world of dance, offers hope to any girl who has ever felt unremarkable or talentless.

Hers is a moral fable that all girls could do with remembering. Pauline’s fall from grace was one of the most shocking turns, I felt, which I have reminded myself of every time I have felt the flush of success. Unlike so many books these days, where the heroine is not only beautiful, brave and ultimately some kind of superhuman goddess, these girls’ flaws are all too recognisable in ourselves. And Posy, the precocious, hilarious baby dancer.īut for me, what really brings these girls alive is, for all their fantastic talents, their imperfections.

There is the eldest, Pauline, famous for her “pink and white complexion” - for how many years have I longed for those rosy cheeks, for that soft golden Alice in Wonderland style hair! Then Petrova, who, in her disdain for all things theatrical and her two left feet, is probably my most likely contemporary. They are all chalk and cheese to each other, yet they have all at some stage been my favourite. Perhaps it is because their lives are so holistically narrated that by the end of the book, you consider them almost your own sisters. I think what made this book so attractive to me was the girls themselves.

Ballet shoes by noel streatfeild