Acceptable Feminine Goals: Averted initially as all three girls wish to get their names in the history books, but Pauline and Posy eventually pursue acting and dancing careers, while Petrova wishes to become an aviatrix.

When he returns home, he wonders who the three young women in the house are - forgetting that babies grow up. He seems to forgot about the existence of the Fossil children for years and sends no financial support.

Absent-Minded Professor: Amateur paleontologist Great Uncle Matthew fits this trope.

In America these books were all titled 'something Shoes' for recognition purposes ( The Circus Is Coming being retitled Circus Shoes for instance). The family runs a boardinghouse, so the three girls meet many different people who live in the house.Īlthough only Ballet Shoes has been filmed, the book had several sequels following the girls' further adventures and connections with other young girls involved in performing arts. They are then left to be raised by Sylvia, their guardian, and Nana, their nursemaid. The three girls are adopted as infants by a man they call Gum, short for Great Uncle Matthew. It was made into a BBC TV series in 1975 and a movie in 2007 the second adaptation was a BBC film starring Emma Watson as the eldest sister Pauline.

Together they are being trained in dance and acting, with varying degrees of success.

It is about three Happily Adopted girls living in 1930s England. Ballet Shoes is a children's novel by Noel Streatfeild.

Ballet shoes book series