JANUARY BOOK GROUP REView - BALLET SHOES

Our first meeting of 2026 discussed 'Ballet Shoes' by Noel Streatfeild, which is the only children's book on the County reading group book list from which we choose our reads.

After some quite challenging books last year, and because not everyone has time to sit and read over the festive period, we wanted something easy!

For many of us it was indeed a real comfort read: one member said "I inhaled it", and for others it was a (re-)visit to simpler times.

However, the thoroughly middle class, ordered lives of the Fossil children weren't to everyone's tastes. It's a book very much 'of' its time - as one of the characters said "there's needing money and there's needing money"... For the Fossil household, needing money meant taking in lodgers but not getting rid of the cook.

As adults we can appreciate the well-drawn characters and see that Noel Streatfeild actually wrote a fairly radical book full of independent women, women with Doctorates and girls brought up to contribute to the family unit.

Several of our readers had not read the book before and a couple really didn't enjoy it but on the whole it was a hit with 8 thumbs up to 2 thumbs down. We recommend it, particularly to youngsters interested in dance and the performing arts.

As ever, our conversation meandered: through wider children's literature, the modern reading habits of Gen Z, and even a side quest into the history and rights of child labour.