Was There a Sequel to Ballet Shoes?

Ballet|Ballet Shoes

Ballet Shoes is a beloved children’s novel written by Noel Streatfeild in 1936. It tells the story of three adopted sisters, Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil, who are sent to a boarding school for girls to study ballet.

The book has been adapted into a television movie twice, once in 1975 and again in 2007. Since its publication over 80 years ago, many fans have wondered if there was ever a sequel to Ballet Shoes.

Noel Streatfeild wrote several other children’s novels following Ballet Shoes, such as The Circus is Coming and The Saturdays, but none of these books were sequels to Ballet Shoes. Streatfeild never wrote an official sequel to Ballet Shoes, though she did write a collection of short stories about the Fossil sisters titled “Further Adventures of the Fossil Sisters.” These stories are not considered canon and did not make it into either of the television adaptations.

In 2009 author Natalie Standiford wrote a sequel to Ballet Shoes called Theater Shoes. This book follows the Fossils as they go on to pursue their dreams of becoming actors instead of ballerinas. Theater Shoes has been praised by critics for remaining true to the original novel while embracing modern themes such as feminism and LGBTQ+ rights.

In 2018 Netflix debuted an adaptation of Theater Shoes starring Emma Watson as one of the main characters. The movie deviates from both the novel and its predecessor with different plot points and characters added from other works by Noel Streatfeild.

Conclusion:

Was there ever a sequel to Ballet Shoes? Though Noel Streatfeild never wrote an official sequel to her beloved children’s novel, author Natalie Standiford wrote Theater Shoes in 2009 as a follow up story which was later adapted into a Netflix movie in 2018.