Drina's Dancing Year

(26 January 2012, Stratford)

Sequel to “Ballet for Drina”, which I reviewed on my old LiveJournal blog. We find our heroine installed in London, cheerfully still in contact with her solid friend, Jenny, who has given up ballet dancing and aims to become a farmer, and thinking about auditions for the Dominick Ballet School, where her mother studied and danced. Of course she does get into a ballet school, then it’s trials, tribulations and hard work all the way. But I like the down-to-earth quality of these books – having sensible friends and sticking up for one another is encouraged, and success never comes without hard work, plus it’s not always A Good Thing to have what is known as “a temperament”. Very beguiling reading show more on a poorly day! show less

This is the second book in the children's series about Drina, a young ballet dancer. I picked it up at the Thrift store recently; on reading, I realised that I had read the first book many years ago.

In this book, Drina finally gets her dream, when she is accepted into a full-time ballet school in London. There she makes some good friends and also attracts some negative attention from people who are envious of her talent. Her mother was a famous ballerina, but Drina is determined not to let anyone know because she wants to know if she can succeed on her own.

There are some fairly typical school story anecdotes, some proud achievements, and warnings from Drina's grandparents who would really prefer her not to be a dancer. The book feels show more rather dated, which is not surprising as it was first published in 1958. I don't know if today's children would find this interesting - the content is appropriate for girls of about 8-11, so perhaps it would find favour with those who are keen on ballet.

Not a bad book, but nothing special. I don't think it's as good as the ballet stories by Noel Streatfeild; more on a par with the later ones by Lorna Hill. show less

I had not read the Drina books since I was a child and I recently re-read them all. I read the first 5 as a child and then as a teen I hunted down the final 6 once I realized they existed. I am happy to say that for the most part they hold up to the test of time. They are very much in the style of British school stories but I quite like those. I think the whole series is definitely worth the effort it takes to hunt them down.