The book is juvenile fiction about a young girl, age 9, who dances ballet. She wants to start using toe shoes but everyone tells her she is too young. She goes on a summer vacation to the beach and meets a famous ballerina and her choreographer husband who decide to stage a shortened version of The Nutcracker at the grand hotel where they are staying. The girl is invited to participate even though she is not staying there. The owner’s spoiled daughter makes a fuss and is cast as Clara. She had started dancing with toe shoes but it is causing to much stress on her developing feet and she can’t dance very well. I think her name is April.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Susie and the Ballet Family, by Lee Wyndham.
Yes, Susie and the Ballet Family. I loved this book. There is also a sequel called On Your Toes, Susie!
Thank you so much! I have looked for this book for more than a year before finally breaking down and listing it here!
Don’t know how many will see this, but…
Besides the five Susie books, Lee Wyndham wrote the wonderful The How and Why Wonder Book of Ballet (1961). Plus… Florence Nightingale: Nurse to the World (1969). She wrote more than three dozen books in all.
More on her:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.arts.books.childrens/BBQiaqmZPZM