40 replies to this topic

[Poppiedancer]

Hi

I have read all of the 'Drina' series and most of the 'Wells' series and the first two 'Satin slippers'  Can you get any of these on the internet?  Where?  I looked on the amazon site but I couldn't find them.  I love to read them!

Any other series or books you could recommend?

I'm 14.

Love,
Em

[Nanatchka]

You're a little old for it, but you might enjoy an old book by Noel Streatfield called "Ballet Shoes." (There are others in the series--I think I recall "Theater Shoes," among others.) You would find this in a library. You might also enjoy some biographies or autobiographies of dancers. Try Toni Bentley's "Winter Season" for a start.

[Helena]

You can get second-hand ballet (and other) books from a site called www.alibris.com. I have used them and found them efficient. It's American, but ships anywhere, though if you are outside the U.S. the postage is a bit expensive.  In my case - I'm in England - the postage was more expensive than the books, but the books were cheap!

I don't think anyone's too old for Ballet Shoes, but it's not as much about ballet as the title suggests - more about general theatrical training. Jean Estoril, who wrote the Drina series, also wrote a couple of books about "The Ballet Family", and Jean Ure might be worth looking at as well.

[Helena]

Slight correction: Jean Estoril also wrote under the name Mabel Esther Allen, so the books might be in that name.

[dancingmeghan]

I love reading biographies on dancers. My favorites are Margot Fonteyn: Autobiography, Anna Pavlova-the Genius of Dance, and I second Toni Bently's book (Winter Season). And I would suggest Gelsey Kirkland book. But I've lost it! I just bought it and was just about to read it when we had to move everything for our new carpeting, and now, gone! . And then there's a fiction book that even my sister read (that's saying something!). It's called 'Dancer'  but I don't remember the author.
~*Meghan*~

[Calliope]

There's a great book called "A Candle for St. Jude" which they actually made into a movie too (hard to find the movie though)

[pleiades]

A Candle For St. Jude was written by Rumer Godden.  I still have the paperback copy I bought when I was in high school bazillions of years ago.  It's well worth searching out.

[Kate B]

I don't think ANYONE is too old for 'Ballet Shoes' (or any of Noel Streatfield's books for that matter!)

I am 25.

[Juliet]

Oh, I'd forgotten about A Candle for St. Jude!  Godden has also written at least two other ballet-oriented fiction titles with which I am familiar:  Thursday's Children and Pippa Passes.

We've discussed ballet-books before--you might try searching previous threads (we do it at least once a year!)

Juliet

[Ari]

There's a novel called A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson, which is about a young British girl in the early 20th century who yearns to be a ballet dancer. She winds up joining a company in South America, where she finds love as well as artistic fulfillment.  It's a romantic, rather sensual story, but well written.  It's out of print, but I found my copy in a library.

[Danielle DeVor]

Also, a new author on the scene is a writer named Kat Corbett- she has written 2 books so far and both of them are really great.  She is easily found on amazon or barnes and nobel

[vagansmom]

I just finished reading "Corpse de Ballet" (ya gotta love that title) by Ellen Pall. It's a whodunit, one of whose mysteries is "Who spiked the rosin?"

I thought it was really funny although I'm not sure it was intended that way. :rolleyes: The author's biases are evident from the get-go and we're constantly reminded of them throughout the novel. And you'll guess the murderer right away.

But I still liked it. Nice bit of fluff. Great for the beach.

[Katharyn]

Helena!  You are officially my hero!!!! I've been unable to remember Jean Ure's name for years - I kept thinking it was Orr, or Ore...
Thankyou!  Now  maybe I'll be bale to find that trilogy she wrote that I loved so much.

Thanks again!