No Ballet Shoes in Syria

Product Information

This is a comprehensive history of the ballet from its origins in the French courts, when the positions were more etiquette than art, and dancers were as much courtesans as artists.

The book cleverly and powerfully switches between the current story of Aya trying to audition for a prestigious ballet school, whilst her family appeals their rejected plea for asylum, and Aya’s memories of her home in Syria.

That’s what I wanted to do – to confront difficult issues, in a way that didn’t offer glib solutions or whitewash the truth, but which did offer the consolation of hope. On Hassan's first day at school he paints a colourful picture of his home and family in Somalia, but then adds soldiers, flames and bullets. This particular middle grade book has so much depth, Aya goes through so much and it was a very eventful ride through the end. The way the author develops the characters, dropping in a little information every now again, is very clever.

The book opens not with the founding of the theatre in the 18th century but in the 21st, with an acid attack in a freezing Moscow street, the work of a disgruntled dancer. So you can see how the objects Aya selects and the memories they unlock helped me to tell her story. A breath-taking, epic adventure, spanning the icy wastes of the Arctic Tundra to the vaudeville circus of New York, from the award-winning author of No Ballet Shoes in Syria and Another Twist in the Tale.But at the same time, Aya and her family must fight to be allowed to remain in the country, to make a home for themselves and to find Aya's father - separated from the rest of the family during the journey from Syria. Newland Archer sitting on a bench outside Ellen Olenska’s Paris apartment, not going up, but knowing that the memory of her is enough – it breaks my heart and makes me sob every time. Het boek 'De balletschoenen van Aya', dat zo simpel en toch zo krachtig is, geeft de vluchtelingenproblematiek voor jongeren een gezicht. This story will stay with me and, like the author, reminds me of Ballet Shoes - one of my favourite childhood books.