Ballet Shoes cover art

Ballet Shoes

A Story of Three Children on the Stage (A Puffin Book)

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Ballet Shoes

By: Noel Streatfeild
Narrated by: Janet Streatfeild
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About this listen

Penguin presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, read by Janet Streatfeild.

'I wonder...if other girls had to be one of us, which of us they'd choose to be?'

Pauline longs to be an actress.

Petrova is happiest playing with cars and engines.

And if she could...Posy would dance all day!

But when their benefactor Great-Uncle Matthew disappears, the Fossil girls share a future of a dazzling life onstage, where their dreams and fears will soon come true....

Noel Streatfeild once said that Ballet Shoes was 'really a fairy story with its feet halfway on the ground' - a magical description for a magical book.

Noel was born in Sussex in 1895 and was one of three sisters. Although she was considered the plain one, she ended up leading the most glamorous and exciting life! After working in munitions factories and canteens for the armed forces when WWI broke out, Noel followed her dream of being onstage and went to RADA, where she became a professional actress. She began writing children's books in 1931, and Ballet Shoes was published in 1936. She quickly became one of the most popular authors of her day. When she visited Puffin exhibitions, there were queues right out of the building and all the way down The Mall. She was one of the first winners of the Carnegie Medal and was awarded an OBE in 1983. Noel Streatfeild lived in London. She died in 1986.

Also by Noel Streatfield, and available in A Puffin Book: Tennis Shoes; Circus Shoes; Theatre Shoes.

©1936 Noel Streatfeild (P)2017 Penguin Audio
Fiction Growing Up Growing Up & Facts of Life Literature & Fiction Music & Performing Arts Adoption Dream Carnival Fantasy
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Critic reviews

"A masterpiece.... Ballet Shoes is one of my all-time favourite children's books - and you don't have to be a ballet fan to enjoy it." (Dame Jacqueline Wilson)

What listeners say about Ballet Shoes

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  • Overall
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Great story

Loved this story, nice simple story about 3 girls brought up and trained as dancers and actresses. Lots of different threads and good attention to detail. Narrator was good, sounded right for this book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, badly narrated

It’s a mistake to get a family member to read this lovely book, rather than a professional actor or narrator.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

nostalgic and largely enjoyable.....

Why have "three_pence!!!!!! ". so irritating and repeatedly! Always pronounced "threpence"!!!! Shame. Still enjoy the story as sounded in my head in the 1940's.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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It's a classic.

story is is good and entertaining as I remember it being when I was a child I was less impressed with the reader is styles quite abrupt and harsh

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10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing ❤️👍

Loved how the voice was so relaxing and the story was interesting to listen to !

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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🤣

This is the best audible book I’ve ever listened too 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 if you are a girl you would love it ,it is based on any age

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I had to ditch this one as reading was so awful

Dreadful narration. I stopped at the first chapter and will have to download a different version with a proper reader

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Top Marks From Our Family

I loved this book and found it particularly enjoyable because of the narration which, for me, exactly matched the author's style.

I am a native Londoner myself, albeit not as posh as the children in the story. This narrator captured the London humour so well - 'Nanny' sounded exactly like my grandmother (who was known always as Nana' in the Cockney style) - she was, of course, a relative nas opposed to a servant.

This story includes orphaned children, ballet, an eccentric type of school and a happy ending. The story is of its time but no worse for that - I listened with my three nieces who accepted it as a historical novel, and we had some interesting discussions on subjects arising such as courage, gender equality, what happens when we get too big-headed and what constitutes a real family.

Lovely.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Amazing

Great story the reader is a bit shouty at the start but the more you read the more you get used to it great story overall

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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Happiest

I’m so happy that this is read by one of Noel streatfeild family members and that so amazing 🤩😇☺️🥹😃😀😃😄😁😂😂😅🥳🤩😛🤪😝🍊🍉🍒🍅🍅🥦🌽🥔🍠🌽🥥🍈🍈🍒🍑🥭🥑🍍🍍🍅🥝🥥🥝🍅🍅🥑🥭🍇🍇🍓🫐🫐🍇🍌🍌🍏🍏🍎🍎🍊🍊🍊🍋🍋🫒🫒🫒

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