Children's ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
Ballet Shoes
Noel Streatfeild · 2006
🎙 Narrated by Elizabeth Sastre (Listening Library, 2006 unabridged edition)
81/100
👍 Worth It
Penny here: this 1930s classic about three adopted sisters chasing their own separate dreams -- acting, ballet, and airplanes -- still holds up as a warm, grounded story about sisterhood and hard work, and it's completely safe family listening from start to finish. Elizabeth Sastre's unabridged narration is a lovely match for it, just make sure you're not grabbing the different BBC dramatization by mistake.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
▶ Listen to a sample
🎙 Narration: good Elizabeth Sastre narrates the 2006 Listening Library unabridged edition; a separate BBC full-cast dramatization also exists, so confirm which edition you're getting.
🎧 Listen free with an Audible trial ↗ Find it on Audible ↗📚 In print ↗📱 On Kindle ↗ affiliate links · support the site, never the verdict
As an Amazon Associate and Audible affiliate, Penny earns from qualifying purchases. This never affects the verdict — see our affiliate disclosure.
Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety95
Substance / usefulness78
Craft & writing82
Originality68
Evidence & accuracy80
Hype vs delivers75
Age-fit90
Human-eye read82
Penny’s verdict81
Cross-pollinate