Ballet Shoes

So, show of hands of everyone else who was a big fan of Noel Streatfield's "Shoe" books when they were a little girl??

(Consider that this is me, standing, waving a big hand over my head.)

I LOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVED the "Shoe" books.

The books were titled things like "Ballet Shoes" and "Theater Shoes" and "Dancing Shoes" and "Circus Shoes".

They were always about children in England overcoming some kind of difficulty and finding a career in the theater or some other kind of performing art.

I absolutely adored them. You can read about them here.

My favorite, (as it was of every OTHER 10-year-old bibliophile I knew in the 4th grade (okay, so that was 3 other girls, but, whatever)) was "Ballet Shoes", which is about 3 girls who are adopted by an eccentric old uncle who goes missing, and they struggle to keep the house in order while he is away for years, and they make money, somehow, by becoming ballerinas. (In terms of adoption literature, it was written in 1936 and probably is horrifyingly not-PC.)

I was excited when I saw that Emma Watson (Hermione for all my fellow Harry Potter devotees) was in a film version of Ballet Shoes for the BBC last year.

Because I am a freak (you must all know this about me by now), I sent an email asking BBC America if they would be airing the movie in the US, and they emailed back and said that, unfortunately, they would not be airing the film "to our American audience". But, they thanked me for my interest in all things British. And then they suggested that I toddle my pathetic self off to the kitchen to brew a pot of tea and do something productive since I clearly had to much time on my hands.

(Yeah, I'm just kidding about the last part.) (I mean, they DID thank me for my interest in the British Broadcast Corp, that part is true.)

But, I was delighted to see that the film IS being released on DVD in the US in September. See, you can even pre-order it from Amazon. And it will be available from Netflix, too.

So, come September, I suggest you grab your pre-teen daughters (or nieces, or the pre-teen girl still lurking inside yourselves), my fellow Shoe-book and Herminone loving bloggity-gal-pals, and settle in for a night with the BBC and the delightful Emma Watson.

(And no, the BBC is not even paying me for all the mad props I am giving them.)

LM