Dancing Shoes (The Shoe Books)

I bought this copy of Dancing Shoes as a replacement for a copy I had read to pieces (paperbacked books for children are not, for some reason, made to last a lifetime). I have loved Ms. Streatfield's books since I first encountered Ballet Shoes when I was 10 years old. It is true that every one of her books follows the same plot -- a number of related children working toward careers: one is competent and achieves expected success, one is ordinary, and one is an unexpected and unlooked for genius (after spending most of the book as the one whom no one believes will amount to anything.) The setting for Dancing Shoes is a school for children trained to dance in troupes on the stage, where two adopted sisters are taken to live with their Aunt who runs the place, and her obnoxious, spoiled daughter who gets a satisfying and hefty face plant at the end that even at 10 years old I thought "Serves her right." A good book from another era, starring normal children; no vampires, no aliens, no anorexia, divorce, murder or horror.

Dancing Shoes is a similar formula compared to Streatfeild's other books. After Rachel and Hilary's father dies, they are sent to live with their Aunt Cora, who owns a talent school and troupe. While Hilary is a very talented dancer, she wants nothing more than to have fun. Her sister, Rachel wants nothing to do with dancing, but she does want Hilary to go to the Royal Ballet School to study proper ballet, as her family and old dance teacher wished for, even though Hilary doesn't want to. So everyone, including their mean and selfish Aunt Cora, believe that Rachel is jealous of Hilary. Meanwhile, Aunt Cora's talented, and conceited, daughter now has competition with Hilary.The book is full of the same charm as her others. While not as endearing as Ballet Shoes and Theater Shoes, maybe only due to the nastiness of Aunt Cora and how mean she is to Rachel, it is still a wonderful read. Any fans of Streatfeild's other books will surely love this book as well.

Ballet Shoes is the most well known of Noel Streatfeild’s Shoes books, but this book is just as good if not better. It is hilarious, engrossing and satisfying. If you like “Shoes” books you’ll love this one.

Nice light paper - easy to hold and read

OK

Sent by my Mom to her Great Granddaughter for Christmas, this was one of 3 sent. The child in question is 5 years old and reading but prefers her Daddy read to her at night, every night which he does without missing a beat. A man of few words my Nephew merely said she liked the stories. Since she has requested more in the series, they must have been a hit with my Great Niece!

Gave these two books to my great niece. She is an eight-year old who has been taking dancing lessons for several years, so thought she might enjoy them. My sister has been reading this book to her (They are a bit of a challenge, since the story takes place in London, and the books were written years ago.), but I was told that my niece loved it, and did not want to put the book down. She even tried reading some of it herself.

Cute book