Ballet Shoes
Noel Streatfeild, illustrated by Diane Goode
ISBN: 0679901051 (library binding)
Re-read while off at a conference.
I don't remember the first time I read this book, but I know it wasn't during childhood. Which is a crying shame, because I would have loved this sweet little classic domestic about three adopted siblings finding their passions and their purpose in the worlds of dance and performance and machinery.
The plot is simple: an old man is an inveterate traveler and fossil hunter, and he picks up three "fossils" along the way that are a bit different. They're left at his big home in the care of "nanny" and his grand-niece, and while he's away, they grow up in difficult financial circumstances, necessitating them hosting boarders and the girls performing (dance and acting) professionally to earn money as soon as possible.
It's like Alcott, but less twee, and not really any moralizing at all.
There's a movie also, with a very peculiarly aged (and blonde!) Emma Watson, which I haven't seen yet, but seems watchable in that sort of "Shirley Temple" adorable saccharine way.
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