Streatfeild online

A very quick post today, just to mention Noel Streatfeild's enduring hold as a writer for children. One blogger is holding a Streatfeild challenge - to read as many of Noel's novels as she can in a year, so good luck. A second newish website on Ballet Shoes has been set up as a support to a US college course in children's literature. It could well be a modern version of the course reader with all the useful quotes and directions for further reading that you used to be given in a paper handout. I hope for the day that one of the many children's literature academics I've emailed does actually do a contrast between The Whicharts which contemporary reviews only recommended for the broad-minded and Ballet Shoes which only goes from strength to strength as far as popular and critical values are concerned.