#noel streatfeild | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

semper-legens · 2 years

Text

90. Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild

Owned?: Yes Page count: 235 My summary: Three adoptive children, Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil, are in financial trouble. To make ends meet, they all train to become ballet dancers and performers, though not all like it. Pauline’s a born actress, Posy’s a perfect dancer, but Petrova prefers car magazines. Can these girls achieve their dreams? My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

Look. Sometimes you just have to admit that you have an affinity for a certain type of twee, quaint, older style of children’s writing. I’m okay with it. Ballet Shoes is...it’s weird, my copy’s an old little paperback, but I don’t remember reading it as a kid. Still, I’ve found since that I really like it. The story’s old-fashioned, but it manages to maintain a certain charm, never quite crossing the line into being cringeworthy for me. It’s a step up from Enid Blyton, that’s all I’m saying.

The three girls are fun characters. Pauline’s that kind of pretty girl who’s a little up herself, and has to learn humility and that she’s not the main character of the universe. Petrova’s the tomboy, who wants to be a pilot and fix machines. And Posy’s the class clown, a perfect dancer who knows how good she is, but isn’t quite as stuck up as Pauline can be. They feel like they’re designed for the reader to pick one with whom they identify, in which case I am a Petrova stan first and a person second.

One thing I find interesting is the 1930s setting (then-contemporary, it was first published in 1936) and the assumptions it’s making. This interwar period in England is a really interesting slice of history, and with these middle-class characters we can really see the changing times. The Fossils have servants, a cook and a nanny and a maid, but they’re struggling to pay them and have to take in lodgers to their giant house in order to pay the bills. The kids are educated by said lodgers, a pair of lesbian teachers because they can’t afford private school and (implicitly) don’t want to be educated in a state school with the poors. Much is made of the family’s financial situation not being able to keep up with the kids’ need for new clothes - dresses are passed down, but Pauline and later Petrova need nice dresses to get jobs, and their finances don’t always stretch that far. (Also, they keep going on about fabrics and I’m just sitting here clueless like ‘ah, no, wearing cotton at that time of year, ludicrous’ like I know what’s going on. But that’s a me thing.)

I also wonder how much the ballet world has changed since the 30s. Obviously this is a sanitised and idealised look at being a child performer in the 30s, but I have read a lot about the extreme bullying of young ballet dancers, with a focus on their body types. Granted, Pauline’s more an actress than a dancer, and Posy isn’t old enough to begin a professional life by the end of the story, but we still see these kids being affected by beauty standards of the time. Pauline’s fair, the exact image of beauty in this time, but Petrova’s dark and Posy’s a redhead. Pauline ends up getting a role as Alice in Wonderland over a much more talented and skilled classmate because Pauline physically fits the part better, the classmate being plain and ill-dressed. But that’s not really commented on, other than the reader being invited to feel sympathy for the classmate, it’s just a fact of life and the industry these kids are in.

Next up, some real history, as we go back to 1980s Britain for a tale of solidarity.

#Ballet Shoes #Noel Streatfeild #book blog #book blogger #bookblr #4

12 notes · View notes

afulltimenerd · 2 years

Quote

Books are very ornamental things to have about.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

6 notes · View notes

bookcoversonly · 2 years

Text

Title: Dancing Shoes | Author: Noel Streatfeild | Publisher: Random House (2019)

#books #Dancing Shoes #Noel Streatfeild

3 notes · View notes

neurodivergent-aroace-64 · 2 years

Text

white boots is better than ballet shoes and i will fight people on that

#ballet shoes #white boots #noel streatfeild

2 notes · View notes

eightopals · 1 year

Link

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Wintle's Wonders - Noel Streatfeild Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hilary Lennox/OMC, Dulcie Wintle/OMC Characters: Rachel Lennox, Hilary Lennox, Dulcie Wintle, Original Characters, Tom Lennox Additional Tags: Filming, Films, Acting, Hollywood, Show Business, Married Couple, Established Relationship, Music, Fame, Awards, Developing Friendships, Character Development, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Children, Sisters Summary:

Rachel gets tapped for a great honor, and her sister and cousin are there.

#Yuletide #noel streatfeild #opalmatrix

0 notes

fictionadventurer · 4 months

Text

Reblog and tell me about a movie/book/show that isn't Christmas-themed, but you still like to experience at Christmastime.

#tag games #i'm curious because this does seem like a specific genre #different for everyone of course #my list would include noel streatfeild's ballet shoes #a little princess #certain types of wholesome childrens' classics

131 notes · View notes

isfjmel-phleg · 10 months

Text

In true [Marion] Fairfax style, her [1919] script of The Secret Garden is a model of creepy details and shifty, underhanded dealings. These include Mary's two forays into a bog, and Dr. Craven's plot to poison Colin so that the doctor can inherit the manor. The movie is designed to keep filmgoers in a state of pop-eyed anxiety, but it also gratifies the softhearted by interposing an especially doting Mrs. Sowerby, and by marrying off Colin and Mary, who in this version are not cousins. Fairfax's Mrs. Medlock is a punishing crone who forces Mary to hem towels as a penalty for having helped Colin remove a brace prescribed by the sadistic Dr. Craven. At the end of the picture, the garden is "full of bloom, and happiness reigns"; but an important function of this mysterious walled quadrangle on the grounds of Misselthwaite is to serve as a place of retribution in which the children bury Colin's brace, to even the score with the malevolent medic.

--Sally Sims Stokes, "Painting the Garden: Noel Streatfeild, the Garden as Restorative, and Pre-1950 Dramatizations of The Secret Garden," from In the Garden: Essays in Honor of Frances Hodgson Burnett, edited by Angelica Shirley Carpenter

The first film adaptation of The Secret Garden was made in 1919. It has since been lost, but its script and a summary do still exist, from which Stokes derives the above description. It is interesting how many elements not from the book that are part of this adaptation have continued to be used by later films, such as the villainization of the doctor and Mrs. Medlock, romance between the children, and sensationalized action sequences. Yet unlike many later versions, it includes Mrs. Sowerby in a significant role.

#Painting the Garden: Noel Streatfeild the Garden as Restorative and Pre-1950 Dramatizations of The Secret Garden #Sally Sims Stokes #In the Garden: Essays in Honor of Frances Hodgson Burnett #The Secret Garden #The Secret Garden 1919 #making someone hem towels...how very Evil #also why are film adaptations so obsessed with the brace #it's mentioned maybe once or twice in the book and it isn't even something he is currently using #but at least three films (including this) make it a focal point

18 notes · View notes

regardstosoulandromance · 15 hours

Text

obsessed with noel streatfeild writing two aunt cora’s who are evil in totally different ways. who was cora and what did she do.

#book talk #reading: movie shoes by noel streatfeild

0 notes

first--lines · 2 years

Quote

The Fossil sisters lived in the Cromwell Road. At the end of it which is farthest away from the Brompton Road, and yet sufficiently near it to be taken to look at the dolls' houses in the Victoria and Albert every wet day, and if not too wet, expected to 'save the penny and walk'.

— Ballet Shoes (Noel Streatfeild)

#book quotes #noel streatfeild #ballet shoes

4 notes · View notes

hotvintagepoll · 1 month

Note

Moira Sherar propaganda but there's a story that when Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (the books Meg Ryan is crying about in FOX books in You've Got Mail) was about to come out the publishers wanted some photos of three girls dancing to help advertise the book so she went to a local dance school and Moria Sherar was the girl they picked to pose as Posy! (The youngest red head who ends up being the proper ballet dancer) So the red shoes was destined for her

I looked this up and it’s true! Very cute.

#moira shearer #propaganda

39 notes · View notes

wistful-giselle · 1 year

Text

❆ literature for winter & snowscapes ❅

Winter Recipes for the Collective ~ Louise Glück *

The Snow Man ~ Wallace Stevens *

Snowdrops ~ Louise Glück

Between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, Today ~ Emily Jungmin Yoon

Winter Trees ~ William Carlos Williams

Frost at Midnight ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Snow Queen ~ Hans Christian Anderson

The Snow Child ~ Angela Carter *

White Boots ~ Noel Streatfeild *

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times ~ Katherine May

A Christmas Carol ~ Charles Dickens

A Winter Book ~ Tove Jansson

Little Women ~ Louisa May Alcott

Carol ~ Patricia Highsmith

Ice ~ Anna Kavan *

#please add on more I need recommendations myself <3 #mine #literature #poetry #recommendations #winter

285 notes · View notes

carriagelamp · 4 months

Text

A few days late, but I'm lazy...

My favourite books that I read during 2023!

I got really lucky this year, I read some ridiculously good books, to the point that I had a really hard time narrowing them down. And I cheated on a few and bunched them up so I wouldn't have to choose 🙃

I did more detailed assessments of the books in my month reviews, but for anyone that's interested in something I read, here's a quick description:

Annie: An Old-Fashioned Story by Thomas Meehan -- A novelization of the Little Orphan Annie story, close related to the film musical including references to the songs. A charming read that captures the enjoyment of the film but adds a lot more details into the struggles and hardships Annie would have gone through during life on her own in the Depression.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild -- Three girls from a poor family in London end up being welcomed to a ballet academy where they have the opportunity to learn not only how to dance, but to begin attending performances that let them earn money for their family. Follows the heart warming adventures of sisters with a nice balance of financial hardship and obligations during the Depression.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle -- A possession horror based around religious trauma and sexual identity. Fantastic prose and genuinely chilling at points without ever feeling hopeless. Here the demons that start stalking people in this God-fearing Montana town are both metaphorical and literal.

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd -- A collection of radio stories that follow the childhood misadventures of Ralphie; these stories would go to make up the classic film A Christmas Story, and Shepherd's hilarious, clever prose makes it a very fun read whether you know the film or not.

Doctor Who: Scratchman by Tom Baker -- I actually read a number of pretty good Doctor Who novels this year (13 Doctors 13 Stories, Time Lord Fairytales, Silhouette) and even a Torchwood one (Skypoint) but Scratchman was probably my favourite of the lot. The Fourth Doctor, Sarah, and Harry find themselvese in a horror adventures as they try to defend a host of villagers against an invading force of evil, skeletal scarecrows that are attempting to infect the humans around them.

Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones -- The star Sirius is accused of killing another luminary and losing a powerful instrument called a Zoi. His sentence for this crime is to be stripped of his powers and cast down to earth, to spend one lifetime living in a humble, mortal form - that of a true dog. If he can survive and find the Zoi within that lifetime, he will be welcomed back to the cosmos.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire -- A novella that explores the rehabilitation of children who had been chosen, who found a doorway and stepped into another, strange world. Adventures done, they now need to acclimatize themselves to living in the rigid confines of the real world.

Grandpa's Great Escape by David Walliams -- A hilarious and surprisingly heart-warming story about a boy and his grandfather who was a flying ace during the war. With his mind beginning to fail him, the grandfather is sent to live at a sinister and definitely evil old folks' home. Only Jack can save him.

Hazel's Shadow by Nicole MacCarron -- Hazel has always been plagued by strange visions - the ability to see and speak to ghosts, as well as the knowledge of a strange, nameless horror living in her grandmother's house. Things come to a head though, when a sudden, zombie-like illness explodes through her town leaving only a few left alive, too many ghosts to count, enemies at every turn, and the shadow waiting for them.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree -- (as well as it's sequel that came out later in the year, Bookshops & Bonedust). This was such a pleasant, low-stakes, domestic fantasy about Viv, an orcish ex-mercenary who has decided she's tired of fighting and would rather settle down and open a coffeeshop. One of the sticking points being, of course, that no one knows what coffee is.

Love Beyond Body, Space & Time by assorted authors, anthology -- An Indigenous queer sci-fi anthology with a really excellent collection of stories, including an author I already knew and loved! The stories explore a wide range of gender, sexuality, magic, machines, and ways of being, I highly recommend picking it up!

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske -- Robin, a young baronet, thought he was being shunted into the most out of the way and miserable public servant position imaginable. He expected things to be tedious but necessary. He did not expect to suddenly learn that magic is real and to be tangled in its machinations in a potentially lethal way.

(MDZS) Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu -- Rejoice, because the feared Yiling Patriarch, the necromancer terror who slaughtered thousands, is dead! And has been dead the past decade. And is now very, very confused to wake up in a new body that isn't his, in a room he's never seen before, and to be thrust into the middle of a murder mystery where everyone would want him dead if they were to learn his real identity.

Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson -- Moomins hibernate through the winter, that's how it has always been for them. So when young Moomintroll wakes and finds the rest of his family still fast asleep, he's left feeling lost and isolated in this new, strange, snow covered world beyond his door.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers -- (and its sequel A Prayer for the Crown-Shy) A very gentle, compassionate sci-fi novel that explores a world humans have created post-climate-crisis. Life is different, the past distant, and a young tea monk never expected to run into an actual robot, who had so long ago left humanity to live their own secluded life in the wilds. Now they're both struggling to answer the question "What do humans need?"

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore -- (and Kate Moore's other book The Woman They Could Not Silence) The Radium Girls is a narrative non-fiction book that looks at the lives of the girls who were paid to paint luminous watch dials using radium paint. It explores the horror, exploitation, and suffering that came from work place negligence and the world's gradual learning about what exactly radium can do.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston -- Presidential son and British prince are forced together for the sake of publicity - to prove that they don't actual hate each other and aren't going to cause a diplomatic incident. They cause a whole new and exciting diplomatic incident by falling in love! Do not read this for the politics, but it did end up being way way better than I expected, this author creates quite compelling characters.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett -- Sour, spoiled, and ill Mary is sent to live with her distant uncle on the Yorkshire moors. Set to be as contrary and unhappy as possible, little by little Mary begins to come out of her shell as she experiences nature, play, and love for perhaps the first time in her life.

System Collapse by Martha Wells -- Newest Murderbot book!! Murderbot, ART's crew, and the humans from Preservation are doing their best to defend the colonists on a plant that's cursed with a strange, alien plague from being consumed by the more immediate threat of corporate slavery. Something, however, seems to be wrong with Murderbot and its worried that if it can't fix the problem soon, it may cost its humans their lives.

(TGCF) Heaven Official's Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu -- Xie Lian is a god. Was a good. He has ascended to godhood twice, and been banished back to earth twice. Once a favour among the gods, he is now a laughing stock, a scrap-collecting god who has been forgotten by almost everyone. So it is with some shock and exasperation to all involved when he ascends for a third time.

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone -- A ridiculous poetic novella written through improbable letters that are written between two time travels on opposites sides of a time war. Seriously, this is probably the most beautiful book I read this year, go read it, the hype is justified.

Wave Me Goodbye by Jacqueline Wilson -- As World War Two rages, Shirley, like many children of the time, is sent from her home in London to be housed by a foster family in the country in order to avoid the Blitz. Put up with two boys in the strange, mostly empty Red House, Shirley has to find a new life for herself out in the country.

When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb -- Uriel the angel and Little Ash the demon find themselves drawn from their usual lives when a young girl from their shtetl goes missing after emigrating to America. Both with their own reasons for wanting to leave the old country, they set off on a sea voyage that will change everything for them.

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame -- The classic stories of Rat, Mole, and Toad. The story begins when Mole, venturing out of his little burrow, meets Rat and winds up living with him in his little home by the river rather than returning to his own, lonely, little hole. From there they have a variety of domestic adventures over the seasons, most notable being Toad's ill-fated obsession with motor cars.

50 notes · View notes