'Ballet shoes' was written by Noel Streatfeild in 1936, and has recently been edited by Salamandra Editions. This youth book is an example of how a classic can stay with us indefinitely, and does not do it because it deals with current issues, but because it tells us about human relationships, illusions and the effort to achieve vital goals, and that is always present in the development of a child.
This book has been available in bookstores in the United Kingdom since the day it was released, and in 2007 it became a telefilm for the BBC starring Emma Watson. Its protagonists are three sisters so different from each other that they are daughters of different mothers and fathers; and so equal that they feel united by invisible ties, and understand the difficulties the family is going through, helping to the best of their ability. Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil were collected and sponsored by an elderly paleontologist who spends time traveling the world and then filling his big house with fossils. They call him GUM (Great Uncle Matthew) and they don't even know him, although the guardian of the three (Sylvia) has grown up with his mother under the protection of this extravagant and restless-minded uncle.
Now it is Sylvia who must take care of three babies that arrive in only five years apart, and luckily she has Nana (the same nanny she had), the cook and Clara (the maid). Things stop going well for everyone when GUM no longer sends money - nor does it return from their travels -, and they must begin to manage the remaining savings very carefully. However, the right decision to turn the big house into guest accommodation will change their lives, even when the little ones must leave school because they cannot afford it.
Noel Streatfeild passed away in 1986 and is a well-known English writer who has several works of children's literature. 'The ballet shoes', immediately obtained a great success, and was among the best-selling books, inaugurating a fruitful career
In the introduction to the book he clarifies that when the girls are still young, Sylvia fell into poverty, and the income of her tenants was not enough; then he remembered that when it is poor even children can contribute their grain of sand. At this time they cross the dance teacher Theo, but also the doctors and Messrs. Smith, forming around the three girls a large community that helps them to prosper in the studies and support them in the difficulties.
Madame Fidolia's Academy of Dance and Interpretation will mark the present and future of Pauline and Posy, also offering many teachings and opportunities to Petrova, who reluctantly accepts them. Probably his life is oriented rather to aviation. As they reach the age of 12 (minimum legal age to work in shows), the three sisters appear at various auditions and are requested by artistic companies, which reports benefits to Sylvia for the maintenance of the family and the house.
If Posy is destined to dance (the baby picked up by GUM has baby slippers since birth, because her mother was a dancer), Pauline is not lacking in interpretation skills, and Petrova combines her studies with the learning of mechanics and passion for cars and airplanes.
It is a book full of humility and yearnings to improve, is a youth novel starring people who adapt to the circumstances and give their best. It is possible that the oath of the sisters is one of the conductive threads: after all, who else can claim to have a surname (Fossil) to place in history books on their own merit without having inherited it from parents or grandparents? Finally at three o'clock a future full of success awaits them, having learned that these should never be the only goals in life.
I recommend it for children over 10 years, it is written many years ago but It is fresh and enjoyableIn addition, although it makes us partakers of the hard situation that girls go through, the book is also very fun and exciting.
