By far the most successful theatre stories for children are those which, with children as their subjects, can show rivalries and ambitions unaffected, as yet, by the awkward, sordid, bewildering adult world. Here Noel Streatfeild is outstanding. Her young actors, skaters and ballet pupils are infatuated by the theatre. They are ambitious, self-centred, as deeply obsessed by technique as any young aspirant for a jumping rosette. She even succeeds, sometimes, in conveying that intangible but unmistakable thing, star quality—in Posy, for instance, youngest of the three girls in Ballet Shoes, who, when the brilliant teacher falls ill, inquires at once what is to happen to her own career; or in Rachel in Wintle's Wonders, whose talents are discovered almost by accident, but whom you recognize at once as a dedicated dancer. (pp. 187-88)

[Noel Streatfeild] has an insatiable curiosity about people, and especially about theatrical children, with...