To be honest, even though I spent my childhood and young adulthood with reading children’s classics, I had never heard of Noel Streatfield until I saw the movie You’ve Got Mail (1998), by which time I had attained full age already. Nevertheless, Meg Ryan’s enthusing about Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes made me want to read it, but somehow life prevented me from reading it. Several years later, a good friend of mine presented me with this book, but I still wasn’t able to read it, because I was writing on my doctoral thesis at that time. But last year, upon joining The Classics Club, I decided that this novel will be among the first classics, which had been sitting on my shelf unread, that I will read for the Classics Club challenge. I had been looking forward to reading it for so long, and was so sure that I will love it. But I didn't. I am very sorry to admit that this book was really disappointing. ... [Continue reading]