Mr Simpson’s picnic: l-r: Mrs Simpson, Nana, Pauline, Mt Simpson, Petrova and Posy. Interestingly, Sylvia, who was also there, is missing.

Dr. Jakes and Dr. Smith Boarders. A pair of retired professors of literature and maths, respectively, who offer to teach the girls. Dr. Jakes first inspires the girls to think of their adoptive state as being full of potential and individuality, without any chance of their achievements being attributed to family connections. This 1936 classic remains a touchstone for balletomane children. Orphans Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil are adopted by eccentric Great Uncle Matthew; when the money runs out, they take to the stage to pay the bills. I believe the book’s endurance is down to its depictions of adolescence as much as the dance detail. The characters are complicated, enviable, flawed. Pretty Pauline’s temper tantrum is one of the best meltdowns in any literature, and results in one of the most relatable comeuppances. The writing is suffused with a teenage sensuousness: costumier’s fabrics such as organza and taffeta seem to caress the reader’s skin as well as the characters’.

a b "Ballet Shoes dances onto BBC One". BBC Press Office. BBC. 20 July 2007 . Retrieved 30 November 2009. Ballet Shoes was a commended runner up for the inaugural Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best British children's book by a British subject. [3] [a] (Streatfeild would win the award later for another book. [4] [b])

Religious & Supernatural - 3 Incidents: Two girls are rehearsing a play that has a graveyard scene where two children hope to see/speak to ghosts. "You can never tell what's magic." "If there was anything that was sacred in the family, it was the savings books. The walk to the post office on Saturday mornings was more sure to happen than church on Sunday." Girls unjustly blame another girl even though they know she's innocent. A girl thinks that if she doesn't dance everyone who came to watch will just "go home." Her peers "snub her" as she "could not be allowed to say things like that." A girl puzzles over two different people, and why she believes one of them to be conceited but not the other. A girl gives "an angry jab at her porridge."

While Uncle Matthew is on a years-long voyage, the girls and Sylvia (Uncle Matthew's niece) and Nana fall on hard times financially until even turning their home into a boarding house hardly is enough to keep the little family going. But even children can help in such situations. In this case, they enter the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training. When I was in my first grade, a teacher took our class to the children's library next to school to be registered. I couldn't believe so many books could exist in just one place. After 2-3 years it turned out that this was not enough, so I got my card in the adults' library next to mine and, unfortunately, my old librarian got offended. Widder, Carrie (24 July 2008). " 'Ballet Shoes' in Theaters Week Before DVD Release". Home Media Magazine. Questex Media Group, Inc. Archived from the original on 3 January 2009 . Retrieved 6 December 2009. A practical young orphan, Sylvia Brown, and her stern nurse Nana come to live at her uncle Gum's house in London, England after her parents die tragically. Gum, a paleontologist, is reluctant to take his niece in, but relents when he learns he is her only living relative. Gum is often away collecting fossils, but he sends Sylvia letters and presents, and she comes to love him. Dr Jakes and Dr Smith. Note Dr Jakes’ tie and short hair which indicates that she is a forward-thinking New Woman