Book Report : BALLET SHOES

This book is called BALLET SHOES, written by Noel Streatfeild. It is about 3 orphan girls who are adopted by a man named Matthew. The girls call him G.U.M for Great Uncle Matthew. Gum collects fossils and other things on his travels. Cook, Clara, Nana and Sylvia all live and work with him. After Gum gives the children to Nana for her to take care of, he leaves enough money for them for 5 years and goes away travelling for a very long time. The three girls, Pauline (the oldest), Petrova and Posy (the youngest) all have different dreams. Posy is a born dancer and Pauline is an actress. But sporty Petrova would rather study planes than do a pirouette because she is more interested in vehicles and how they work. Nana enrolls them into the academy called ‘The Academy of Dance and Stage Training’. Posy is very happy and so is Pauline but Petrova is very bored and so when she is free, takes her book of vehicles and studies it. Pauline acts in many different plays. Some include: Blue bird, A Midsummer Night’s dream and Richard the Third. Long ago, the Fossil family (Pauline, Petrova and Posy) made a vow to put their names in history books and they repeated this vow whenever it was each other’s birthday. One day, Pauline gets an invitation to go to Hollywood in America and Posy to train with a very famous male ballet dancer because some professional at each of their talents had seen them dance\act. Now they are getting one step closer to putting their names in history books! Petrova is the only one left without an invitation. Suddenly, Gum comes back and it happens to be that he is also very good at working with vehicles and studying them! Now, Petrova has something to look forward to. She and the other 2 girls make their last vows of putting their names into history books and then say their goodbyes. I wonder what they are going to do next!

What I like about this book:

·   It is an interesting book since it is written in 1936. And, it is pretty different from stories we have today. In those days, there weren’t any electronic gadgets, there were only typewriters! They had teatime etc. and followed a strict schedule and were demanded down in a strict way even if they were doing something important like homework. These days, we don’t say “OK everyday at 5:30 PM we will take a walk” right? In this book, Nana and the girls take walks everyday other than the days they are sick or not feeling well! Although it was very interesting reading it, I can’t imagine my life being that rigid. Can you?

·   The lesson that I found in the book is: follow your dreams! As each of the girls did. Made me think: if I had to be one of the three, I would be Pauline. I love acting but my second choice is definitely Petrova because she is sporty like me and even though I am not that interested in planes, I enjoyed reading about the engines and cars! If you had to choose, which one would you be?

I would give this a 7 out of 10 rating!

FIND OUT WHAT I MEAN BY READING BALLET SHOES!

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE FOR $6.29 ON AMAZON OR HERE FOR £5.59 AT THE GUARDIAN BOOKSHOP