The main characters are three girls (Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil), who were adopted as orphaned infants by an eccentric archaeologist. Streatfeild apparently received so many requests for a sequel that she eventually wrote a further short story detailing the ongoing lives of the girls (the story appears in several anthologies of ballet-related stories for girls).

It's the only one of the books to have been made into both a ballet and a movie 3, although the movie is not considered to be a faithful adaptation of the book. Ballet Shoesīallet Shoes, published in 1936, was the first 'Shoes' book and has generally been the most popular of the series. As many of the books were written during or shortly after World War II, it is not surprising that the war is a central feature in three of them. The one book that deals with more 'ordinary' children ( Party Shoes) is incidentally one of the least popular of the 'Shoes' series. Eight of the stories focus on children who excel in the performing arts, while two additional books feature child sports prodigies.

Four of the books deal with children who have been recently orphaned (or apparently orphaned). There are several recurrent themes in the 'Shoes' books. The books were written for 8-12 year-old girls, but are often enjoyed by older children and adults, as well. For many American children, the 'Shoes' books were a first introduction to how life (and vocabulary) in Britain was different than life in the United States.

The first of these books was originally published in 1936, and the last in 1962.Īlthough the books were originally published in Britain, they quickly became popular around the world.

Those who grew up reading the books with the original titles may never have thought of them as a series - however, there are recurring themes and 'crossover' characters that make the books worth examining as a set. Incidentally, only the first two 'Shoes' books began their publishing existence with the word 'Shoes' in the title - for the other books, the titles were changed in later editions to make the books appear as a series 2. Some of her most famous books, however, were the 11 juvenile novels that are now known as the 'Shoes' books, as they all have the word 'Shoes' in the title. Noel Streatfeild 1 was the author of fiction and non-fiction, for children and adults.

Noel streatfeild books in order