When orphans Sorrel, Mark, and Holly are sent to live with their grandmother, a famous English actress, she enrolls them in the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training, the same academy that made the orphans from Ballet Shoes famous so long ago. It's the chance of a lifetime, but the academy won't give the children the "proper" education their parents would have wanted. However, the children learn to love the academy when they discover that Sorrel has dramatic flair, Mark can sing, and Holly charms everyone with her adorable impish ways. Maybe talent does run in the family.

I have always loved Noel Streatfeild's books and as a child I got my library to ILL them for me or hunted through second hand book stores to find all of them. She tells the perfect "girls stories". I was always able to find one character in each book that was my favorite. They definitely stand up to re-reads. ( )

Another classic from one of my favourite children's authors. Sorrel, Mark and Holly have been brought up in a vicarage, with a slightly eccentric grandfather who takes little notice of them. When he passes away peacefully, they are taken to London, where they learn that their considerably more eccentric grandmother used to be a famous actress. They are to be moved from their current private schools to a stage training school, where they have to learn dancing, singing and acting as well as other lessons... much to their dismay.

A pleasant book with good characterisation, set in the wary years and giving a good picture of life in a theatre school during rationing. Likeable people, interesting plot, and a very moving (if predictable) ending. Probably best for girls between the ages of about 7 and 14, particuarly those who enjoyed the better known 'Ballet Shoes' and would like to know what happened when the Fossil sisters grew up. (Published as 'Theater Shoes' in the US) ( )

For some reason I've been rereading a lot of these Streatfeild books lately.
This one's a fairly average example--it takes place during the war, there are orphans, they learn dancing, some of them like it, some of them don't, they have a nanny who takes care of them even though no one seems to pay her, etc. etc. keep a stiff upper lip and for god's sake DON'T START THINKING YOU'RE ALL THAT AND GETTING A SWELLED HEAD.
I wonder if NS had some horribly stuck-up spoiled cousin when she was a child and she just never got over it. ( )

I had flu, I needed a comfort read, and there is little more comforting than Streatfeild's tales of genteel (but never too inconvenient) poverty, and plucky orphans making their way in the world of theatre, always far less cutthroat here than it is in anything like real life. ( )