Jane Nissen books, and Noel Streatfeild

Yesterday I found that the book I reviewed for Timeslip Tuesday had recently been republished by Jane Nissen Books, of whom I had never heard. Today I explored their website. It is a veritable feast of beloved twentieth century books--indeed, on the website it says that "the purpose of this personal venture is to bring back into print some of the best-loved children’s books of the 20th century and to enable a new generation of readers to discover for themselves high-quality, timeless titles that should not be lost."

I am especially pleased that they have just republished Green Smoke, by Rosemary Manning--this is a lovely younger-middle-grade book about a little girl who meets a dragon. It delighted me as a child, and my boys also love it.

It is also rather pleasing to see that two Noel Streatfeild books have been re-published-- Tennis Shoes and Circus Shoes. The former is about a family of four children who are being pushed to succeed at tennis--even thought tennis is less appealing to me than theater or ballet, this is one of my favorite Streatfeilds, perhaps because not everyone in the family ends up being wildly successful. Circus Shoes (the original title was The Circus is Coming) less about finding one's talent and pursuing it singlemindly. It tells of two orphans, who run away to find their uncle, a circus clown, and struggle to find a place for themselves in his strange and wonderful world. Here's a review from the Guardian from 2006, when it was re-issued.

The only sadness, which happens every time one sees lots of books one wants being published in the UK, is the exchange rate-- Jane Nissen Books has a link to Amazon UK, but that gets expensive fast. Amazon over here does, however, seem to have a lot of used copies of Tennis Shoes available at reasonable prices (edition unspecified), so perhaps there is a trickle down effect...

Incidentally, Oxford Children's Classics has, just this month, republished Party Shoes, a Streatfield that is hardish to find over here, and it is available at Amazon new.

And finally, the dvd of Ballet Shoes starring Emma Watson is now available over here--here's what the New York Times says about it.