![]() ![]() But her son’s prodigious talent becomes impossible to ignore. The book is as powerful on the sacrifices of motherhood as it is when evoking the heady atmosphere of 1970s Manhattan. Joan, a young American dancer, helps Russian ballet star Arslan Ruskov defect from the USSR, then stages a defection of her own, to the Californian suburbs, to teach and raise a family. It takes its title from legendary New York City Ballet choreographer George Balanchine’s command to his dancers, and his ghost is on every page. There are surprisingly few adult novels about ballet, but this exquisitely written book sets the bar. The writing is suffused with a teenage sensuousness: costumier’s fabrics such as organza and taffeta seem to caress the reader’s skin as well as the characters’. ![]() Pretty Pauline’s temper tantrum is one of the best meltdowns in any literature, and results in one of the most relatable comeuppances. ![]() The characters are complicated, enviable, flawed. I believe the book’s endurance is down to its depictions of adolescence as much as the dance detail. Orphans Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil are adopted by eccentric Great Uncle Matthew when the money runs out, they take to the stage to pay the bills. This 1936 classic remains a touchstone for balletomane children. So I can't help but wonder, what were these writers and their publishers thinking?!Īnd while I'm sure some of these writers had good intentions (strongly emphasizing the word "some"), a lot of these books take a really weird borderline-traumatizing approach to teaching children how to deal with adult-themed dilemmas. Don't believe us? Check out some of the most cringe-worthy, jaw-dropping kids books you've EVER seen.Endurance … ballet shoes. If parents back in the early twentieth century weren't saving for college, I hope they were scrounging pennies for the inevitable lifetime of therapy bills. And I wasn't exactly prepared for what I found inside its pages: rhyming, thinly-veiled stories of drowning kids, sexual assault and rape, even murder! Yikes. In fact, I once came across a vintage copy of Mother Goose rhymes rummaging through the boxes at a flea market. ![]() Old wisdom says you shouldn't judge a book by its cover … they clearly never saw these abominations of literature. … And then there are these 21 books that probably never should have made it to shelves.Ĭovering a broad scope of "say-what?!" topics from sexually transmitted diseases and domestic abuse to sexual assault and brain-eating zombies, the list goes on and on. They inspired us, excited us, and taught us little, simple lessons about life. There are libraries full of classic books we've loved since we were kids: The Giving Tree, Where The Wild Things Are, Shel Silverstein's anthology of poetry Where The Sidewalk Ends. ![]()
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