Books: Ballet books for 13+

[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

[Guest 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.

[Guest 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.

[Guest 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*~

[Guest 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

[Guest DancerLegs]

Try looking under Books on Ebay.com - but I warn you, it is highly addictive! I have found many treasures there. One of my very favorite authors is Lee Wyndham - search Ebay and Alibris for her name. She wrote a number of ballet fiction novels for children and teenagers (but I still reread them even at my advanced age!)

[Guest 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

[Guest alpusachni]

Two good places to find books are abebooks.com and half.com

 

I found almost all the Satin Slippers and Drina books there. Which I had read as a child, but no longer had, and wanted to reread and keep. I also found a lot of dance bios there.

[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. 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!