Theater Shoes (The Shoe Books)

I love this book! I like to dance, and I think that the girls who are interested in this book will be dancers or actresses, etc. I think that it is a good story about children my age learning to love dancing and acting as I do, and I would definately recommend reading this book! I have read this book and Dancing Shoes, and I cant' wait to read Ballet Shoes! I am not sure if non-dancers or actresses would like this book, but I sure did! It is about three children named Sorrel, Mark, and Holly, who, after a period of time, find that talent runs in their family. But Sorrel is rivaled by her cousin, Miranda, who thinks she is better than them. But they prove her wrong! Sorrel learns to love acting, while Mark sings, and Holly dances. I'll probably read it over and over again years to come!

Do you remember when the Meg Ryan character walked into TomHanks' FOX BOOKS store and the customer asked about the"Shoes" books, and a monologue about the wonders of Noel Streatfeild's "Shoes" books ensued, touching on Dancing Shoes, Ballet Shoes, and Skating Shoes, which is absolutely wonderful? That scene made me break down crying, because I had never heard anyone other than myself talk about these terrific books, and the fact that it is tragic that they are mostly out of print and hard to find. This book is a wonderful story of working hard for a goal, and accomplishing it, or at least getting on the road to achieving a reasonable, yet magical, goal. If you want a great book for your favorite elementary school girl, buy this one - then buy the other "Shoes" books (and get a copy of Tennis Shoes for your favorite boy too!)

Sorrel, Holly, and Mark Forbes, whose father has disappeared in World War II, come from their grandfather's vicarage to live with their previously unknown grandmother, the great actress Margaret Shaw, in wartime London, and attend Madame Fidolia's school. They are "adopted" by the Fossil sisters (Pauline and Posy in California, Petrova flying in the war), and adjust to their talented cousins and new family. A vivid look at theatre life and London; delightful characters; a book that will enchant young and old. When will all this series be reprinted?

Theatre Shoes was the first of Noel Streatfield's 'shoe' book that I read. After I finished it, I went straight to the library to get more. I love reading about how normal kids [poor and orphaned] can become great at something. In this particular one Sorrel, Mark, and Holly are living with their grandmother, who has almost nothing, in London. This 'shoe' book [along with the other ones that I have read] talks about their troubles and how hard they work to earn money by preforming [even though they do not want to] and how each one of them finds their own special talent. You get to know the charecters so well that you feel like you are one of them. The events in the book seem so real. I just wish Noel Streatfield had written more than just 10 of them.

I admit that I have never quite outgrown children's books, of which this is definitely one. It is set in England in 1942-43 and is about three children named Sorrel, Mark and Holly. Their mother is dead and their father missing when the grandfather that they were living with dies. They are sent to live with their maternal grandmother, about whom they know nothing because their mother eloped and was never forgiven. It turns out that their mother was a member of a very famous stage family; so they are sent to the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training so that they can carry on the tradition. This book serves as a sequel to Ballet Shoes but it manages to be more successful than most sequels in that it doesn't follow the original characters' lives after they have resolved their primary drama, but it keeps them as peripheral to the main plot. This way, the reader knows what happened to them but is not disappointed by the fact that they have become so much less interesting. There really isn't too much commentary that can be given on this book. It's very nice if you like this sort of thing but probably be very annoying if you don't