\n
\u00a0Oh the excitement! I am off to the theatre this week, to see the National Theatre’s adaptation of Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild’s wonderful story about three resourceful orphans and their progress towards putting their names in the history books.\u00a0 I’m going with my daughter (my husband and son will be going to the cinema to see Gladiator), and we can’t wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Noel Streatfeild was one of my favourite writers when I was a child (along with Mara Kay and Antonia Forest), and although Ballet Shoes wasn’t my absolute favourite book of hers, it came near. My favourites – in order –\u00a0 were Wintle’s Wonders (orphans, dancing school), followed jointly by White Boots (skating) and Curtain Up (near orphans, dancing school). Then came Ballet Shoes\u00a0 and\u00a0 The Painted Garden (Hollywood).\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you’ve never read Noel Streatfeild, you can get the idea from those short descriptions –\u00a0 children plus show business\/sport –\u00a0 but not the flavour. I re-read Curtain Up this week in anticipation of the play (I didn’t want to re-read Ballet Shoes itself, because I know the adaptation will take liberties with the test, as adaptations have to, so I’ll wait until after I’ve seen it). Curtain Up has been rather confusingly renamed Theatre Shoes (what they?) to tie in with the more famous Ballet brand, but reading it confirmed to me that I was right to have loved it so much.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were several things about it that I noticed:<\/p>\n
–\u00a0 It’s very contemporary. There are descriptions of wartime London –\u00a0 the bombed houses, the blackout, the sandbags, the missing railings around the garden, taken to make munitions –\u00a0 that probably baffled me, reading in the late 1960s, but didn’t bother me at all. The children’s home was originally in Guernsey –\u00a0 at that point occupied by the Nazis –\u00a0 which was actually an important plot point.\u00a0 In fact the books passed seamlessly into historical fiction without even trying.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0–\u00a0 The adult characters are well drawn and flawed. They argue and gossip and fail to solve problems. The children are therefore even more resourceful, because they are making good the lack of solutions created by adults. Occasionally the right adult steps in to do the right thing\u00a0 –\u00a0 Aunt Lyndsey makes Sorrel a wonderful dress –\u00a0 and when that happens, it’s just like magic. Better than magic. Because this is what’s meant to happen, but it so rarely does. Hannah’s egg sandwiches on the train are another example.<\/p>\n
\u00a0– There are contemporary Jewish characters who are neither foreign nor victims. Miriam, the children’s cousin though is very plain with a bush of dark hair (we call it a Jewfro). Uncle Mose, her father\u00a0 – successful comedian, lovely\u00a0 –\u00a0 what a rare and marvellous character to find in\u00a0 a children’s book when I was a kid, the only Jewish girl in my class at school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0–\u00a0 The emotions of childhood – envy, jealousy, over confidence, under confidence, sibling support, anxiety –\u00a0 are all there, described so well that you feel (I felt) 12 years old again. The importance of toys and books are there too, and also food and clothes. And money! So many of Noel Streatfeild’s books are about the lack of money and how difficult that makes life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, having read one I now want to read them all again. Which was your favourite? Will you be seeing Ballet Shoes?\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Celebrating Noel Streatfeild by Keren David - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=9454\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrating Noel Streatfeild by Keren David - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0Oh the excitement! 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