Showing results by author "Noel Streatfeild" in All Categories

Rising to fame with her 1936 novel Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild soon became one of the most popular authors of her day. She was one of the first winners of the Carnegie Medal and was awarded an OBE in 1983. She died in 1986, but her stories continue to captivate children today. Included here are three of her very best - Ballet Shoes, The Growing Summer and When the Siren Wailed.

When Sylvia and her old nurse Nana agree to keep house for Gum, they know they will be looking after his fossil collection while his away on his travels. But imagine their surprise when one day he brings them something else - three baby girls whose names all being with 'P'! Pauline, Petrova...

Laurel, at eleven, was conscious of being happy. She was almost afraid of it. 'I'll never be as happy again. When I'm quite old, as old as 30, I'll come back to this bit of Eastbourne. I'll come on the same day in June and remember me now. ' The four Wiltshire children live a comfortable middle-class English life. But as WWII overtakes the country, the family, like so many others, slowly disintegrates.

There are stories for every listener in this delightful collection—exciting crime-solving adventures; nervous young actors in the spotlight for the first time; unforgettable holidays and unlikely friendships.

In this captivating collection of stories by the author of Ballet Shoes, there are auditions on stage and antics on ice, trips to the pantomime, holiday adventures and laughter shared with family and friends. Charming, heartwarming and funny, this collection will bring joy to listeners of all ages. Originally written in the 1940s-'60s for annuals, magazines and the radio, these stories have never been collected before.

When Margaret Thursday lands a role as a child actress at a well-known London theatre, becoming famous almost overnight, news of her success reaches her bitter enemy, the matron of her old orphanage. Margaret knows that Matron is set on revenge, but she keeps her head held high, focusing on the play. But Matron’s evil plans are well prepared and Margaret is going to need her wits about her – and the help of her friends – if she is to escape unharmed.

Margaret Thursday was named after the day she was found on the church steps as a baby. But she isn’t really an orphan – each year a bag of gold coins is left at the church for her keep. When the money suddenly stops, her guardians have no choice but to send her away to an orphanage. The orphanage is worse than they could have imagined. Vowing to protect her new friends, Peter and Horatio, Margaret plans their daring escape...but she’ll have to outwit Matron at every turn.