Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Longstocking #1) by Astrid Lindgren

★★★

Growing up, I knew there existed a fictional character named Pippi Longstocking, and I knew she had red hair and braids that stuck out. But that's pretty much about all I knew about her.

I found this series at the local library and picked up the first three books for Isabelle. She really enjoyed them, and she gave this one 5 stars. But, after reading it myself, I just can't bring myself to give it more than 3 stars. I can see why children would enjoy Pippi and her antics, but I think this kind of tall tale-ish storytelling just isn't my cup of tea. Yes, Pippi has a huge heart and can be very endearing! But, she can also be ridiculous and infuriating. :P

This book was originally published in Sweden in 1957, and it's kind of interesting to read an old-fashioned book through the lens of modern society. Even though Pippi is just nine years old, and her neighbors are presumably around the same age, there is talk about cannibals, and the kids play with real daggers and pistols! Of course it's easy to say that none of it is real, but it's still worth mentioning as a heads-up in light of today's hyper-sensitivity to guns.

Skating Shoes (The Shoe Books #7) by Noel Streatfeild

★★★★½

*** Warning!! This review contains spoilers!! ***

This book is probably one of the most aptly named "shoe books" because skating shoes actually do play a role in the story.

Like many other "shoe books", this book features an orphan, Lalla. Readers may recognize the unlikable aunt / kind, helpful uncle paradigm from Dancing Shoes. Also, similar to the way adoptees were sometimes described as not "real" family members in Dancing Shoes, in Skating Shoes, the life of an only child is depicted rather sadly, making it perhaps not the best reading choice for insecure only children.

Though Lalla is certainly a primary character in the book, the true main character is Harriet, who has a wonderfully large family. For the first time in a "shoe book", we see some really positive family dynamics at work. Though George, the father, may have been rather inept, Olivia, the mother, was loving and sensible. Throw in two industrious older brothers (I enjoyed the side story about Alec and his paper route) and a comic relief younger brother, and you get just the kind of family Lalla longs for. Harriet has no nurse or governess, but of course Lalla does, and Harriet gets to share hers.

As with other "shoe books", this story featured a child with talent, and that talent was explored alongside other important character traits such as ambition and the ability to work hard. In some ways, Lalla reminded me of Susan in Tennis Shoes. Both girls had enough talent to stand out among observers, but both fell just short of being really great. Susan needed to work really, really hard to succeed, and even so, she didn't have the confidence of a champion and was too self-conscious in front of an audience. Lalla thrived in front of an audience, and she could work hard when she wanted to, but she lacked the passion for the "figures" part of figure skating. Besides coming to terms with their own shortcomings, both girls had the additional challenge of seeing a close loved one rise to potential greatness instead of them. I'm not sure how realistic it was, but I liked how neither Susan nor Lalla were jealous, but rather, each was happy to see her friend succeed, and was comfortable with her own lot in life.

It was interesting, too, how Tennis Shoes and Skating Shoes presented two opposing views of grooming children to be champions. In Tennis Shoes, Susan looked forward to winning lots of championship cups, but in Skating Shoes, the existence of so many cups was portrayed as vulgar. And while everyone seemed to support the idea of training children to be tennis stars, the majority of onlookers in Skating Shoes seemed to think it was downright silly to train a child to be a skating star.

Lalla may have been "a bit of a madam" sometimes, but rest assured, the author's favorite lesson - "pride comes before a fall" - was close at hand.

I was mostly pleased with the ending, but as usual, I still wished for more. It would have been nice if the book hadn't ended until we saw how Aunt Claudia reacted to Lalla not being a champion. Probably she would have been fine, after she realized that Lalla would still be a star, just a different kind of skater, and though that was implied, it would have been nice to have seen it through.

Tennis Shoes (The Shoe Books #2) by Noel Streatfeild

★★★

This is the fourth "shoe book" that I've read, and so far it's my least favorite. For me, tennis as the talent du jour just wasn't as exciting or as interesting as the stage talents (dancing, acting, singing) of the other books.

And, dare I say it? Was the book less appealing because the children weren't orphans? In the other books, the children were surrounded by supportive caretakers - Garnie and Nana in Ballet Shoes, Hannah and Alice in Theater Shoes, and Pursey and Mrs. Storm in Dancing Shoes - who stood in for the children's missing parents. But in this book, Susan, Jim, Nicky, and David did have parents, and still, Pinny and Annie were the primary adults who supported and cared for them. Their mother basically popped in for a few cameos, while their father seemed like a gentler, British version of a male tiger mom.

As a children's book, this book may be a bit more difficult than the others for early elementary school readers. Young David - perhaps my favorite character - liked to use big words, and words that he spoke were frequently purposely misspelled to reflect his childlike pronunciation. The book also gets relatively detailed when recounting tennis matches, making certain excerpts a jumble of numbers unless the reader already understands how tennis is scored. And speaking of jumbles of numbers, there was also a lot of talk about money, as the family was not especially wealthy but needed money for tennis training. And honestly, with all the crowns, shillings, and pences being discussed, I really had no idea how much money anyone had.

As usual, the ending was abrupt and left me feeling disappointed. In this case, a very dramatic event occurred just before the ending, and I wasn't sure exactly what the point of it was, except maybe to present the lesson that just because a person is a star doesn't mean he/she can't also be a fool? Just seemed like somewhat of a sour note to end things on.

Still, I gave the book 3 stars because there was plenty also to enjoy. I liked that Pinny was a fountain of maxims, and I liked how familiar St. Clair's felt because its house structure so closely resembled Hogwarts.

Mostly I liked the nuanced character development. In previous books, we had talented children with ambition (Pauline, Posy), untalented children with other ambitions (Petrova), and talented children without ambition for that particular talent (Mark, Hilary). This time, in Susan, we had a child who was just talented enough to be noticed, but only if she worked really, really, really hard, and she had some ambition, but not a "champion temperament" (pg. 242). That is, she was willing to put in the work to become a star, but she lacked confidence and was self-conscious in front of an audience. Then there was Nicky, who certainly did have a champion temperament, and was talented to boot, but she was also lazy and needed to be taught self-discipline.

I always like it when books introduce readers to new ideas, and I can imagine that young readers today - who live in a world in which certain diseases are now rare - might be encountering "measles" and "mumps" for the first time. I suppose those illnesses seem old-fashioned these days.

I think this book is out of print, and the library edition we got is quite old, with a pretty uninteresting cover. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I'm pretty sure that's what Isabelle did, and she wasn't really interested in reading this one.

Dancing Shoes (The Shoe Books #9) by Noel Streatfeild

★★★½

After reading this book, I can't believe how much I want to say about it!

Isabelle didn't even finish this one. I was surprised because she gave 5 stars to both Ballet Shoes and Theatre Shoes, and how different could this book be? Once I started reading Dancing Shoes, however, I could see right away why she didn't like it.

On the surface, there is much about this book that is similar to the others. The main character, Rachel, is an orphan, and she and her adopted sister, Hilary, are forced to train for the stage. Hilary is naturally talented on the stage (like Pauline and Mark), but Rachel - we think - is not (like Petrova). In time, we find that even though Rachel can't dance, she can act (like Sorrel). Along the way, Rachel's cousin Dulcie learns that "pride will come before a fall" (the same lesson learned by Pauline and Miranda).

Unlike the other two books, however, this story begins with Rachel not yet orphaned. Her father died in an accident, but her mother is there to take care of her and Hilary, who was adopted by Rachel's father when her own parents died in a natural disaster. When Rachel's mother dies, we realize that poor young Hilary has lost two sets of parents! But, though Hilary is an important character in the book, it's really Rachel who is the main character. While we witness the ways in which Rachel deals with her mother's death, Hilary doesn't appear to deal with any emotions at all and just goes along with whatever is expected of her.

So, right off the bat, this book is different because the main character is trying to deal with the loss of her mother, and she feels a lot of anger. As you can imagine, it's kind of a downer. On top of that, the girls get taken in by Rachel's Aunt Cora, who is cold and not at all a sympathetic character. Because Hilary is not a "real" relation, Aunt Cora brushes her off as a second-class family member. Due to a huge misunderstanding that Rachel is unable to clear up, Aunt Cora has a completely inaccurate picture of who Rachel is and what her relationship with Hilary is like. So, for the first part of the book, the girls really had no one on their side (unlike the Fossils, who had a house full of supporters, and the Forbes children, who had Hannah and Alice).

If you can push through the disheartening beginning, you'll be rewarded with some happy developments. Pursey and Mrs. Storm eventually get to know the real Rachel, and they become her staunchest supporters. It takes practically the entire book for me to feel in any way attached to Hilary, but in the end, I liked her quite a bit, and I wished her honesty, straightforwardness, and certainty of conviction could have come through earlier.

Besides the "don't be prideful" lesson, we also learn, through Hilary, that talent alone is not enough to succeed. One also needs hard work and ambition. Yet, as with Mark, we also see that just because one is talented, that does not mean that one must devote one's whole life to honing that particular talent (as Posy did). The important thing is to do what makes you happy.

I thought the ending was more well-done than those of the other books, as I rather liked the final conversation between Hilary and Rachel.

Theater Shoes (The Shoe Books #4) by Noel Streatfeild

★★★★½

*** Warning: This review contains spoilers!!! ***

I liked how nicely this book tied in with Ballet Shoes. It's not exactly a sequel, as Pauline, Petrova, and Posy are not central characters. It's more like a spin-off, with the Fossil girls - now grown up - having cameos. None of them live in London anymore, so they don't make literal appearances, but they are mentioned quite a bit.

This time, instead of being outright orphans, the three siblings - Sorrel, Mark, and Holly - are only temporarily under the guardianship of their maternal grandmother. Their mother died years ago. Their father, being in the Navy, was away at war.

The story takes place during World War II, and I frequently wondered if young readers would really understand the war references. Isabelle read the book before me, and I am sure many of the wartime details went right over her head. There is talk about rationing and black-outs, and though I tried to explain some of it to Isabelle after the fact, by the time we discussed it, it was all out of context, so I don't know if she learned much in the end.

Anyway, I really enjoyed reading about Madame again, and was pleased to see Winifred in a good place. It was fun hearing from Pauline, Petrova, and Posy, too. One should definitely read Ballet Shoes before Theater Shoes, and having read Ballet Shoes, a few of the story lines will sound familiar. In both books, the first time one of the girls gets a leading part in a production, she lets the role go to her head, acts up, and as punishment, an understudy gets to take over. There's also a big to-do about needing a new frock.

I also liked that, just as in Ballet Shoes, all the enthusiasm for show business was not shared by everyone. It's just nice to see a counterpoint so young children don't get to thinking that being star is everything. In Ballet Shoes, Petrova didn't like to perform, but then again, she didn't have much talent. This time, Mark does have quite a bit of talent, but we see that just because you are good at something doesn't mean you must do that thing as a career, even if you don't mind doing it. I'd like to think that Mark's talent doesn't just waste away, but maybe he uses it as a hobby while pursuing his real ambitions.

As with Ballet Shoes, the only real disappointment in this book was the ending. Noel Streatfeild seems to have had a way with abrupt endings. It's like she opened a scene on the very last page, but we don't get to see how that scene plays out. How does Daddy feel about his children performing? How do Daddy and Grandmother get along when they first see each other again? How does Daddy feel about Mark following in his footsteps when it means not pursuing his talent? It would have been nice if the father's return was taken just a little further, if only just through Christmas dinner, and long enough to lay out the family's plans for the immediate future.

Incidentally, Isabelle gave this book 5 stars.

Ballet Shoes (2007)

★★★★

Die-hard fans of the book may be disappointed with all the liberties taken by the movie. Quite a few changes were made, presumably with the intention of adding more drama and tension. While the book focused pretty much entirely on the girls, the movie made Sylvia a more central character. Madame in the book seemed rather warm, but Madame in the movie was quite stern. Still, I liked her. I'm usually a stickler for movies adhering to books, but in this case, I thought the movie version was really well-done.

The only thing I really disliked was the ending. It was too abrupt, just like the ending of the book. At the end of the movie, I felt primed to watch a new series or a sequel.

Isabelle said she liked the movie, but she liked the book better.