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Moth
The First Step
Three stories in one volume telling the story of Moth, a girl who wanted to dance. The volume comprises "The First Step", "Dancer in the Wings" and "One Foot on the Ground".
Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 29, 2022
It was a tough week, I needed a comfort read.
I enjoyed this, but don’t rate it as highly as the ‘Drina’ series.
I enjoyed this, but don’t rate it as highly as the ‘Drina’ series.
July 12, 2014
This is a collection of three books about a young girl who leaves home to attend a ballet school in London, first published in the late 70s and early 80s.
The first book takes place when Moth Graham is 11 and tells how she leaves her family and small town to live with her elderly Great-Aunt Marion so that she can go to the Fortune School of Dancing. In the second book, which takes place the following year, Moth has the opportunity to take part in a professional performance of The Nutcracker. In the last book, Moth is in the final year at Fortune and is preparing for her audition for the Royal Ballet School.
The stories are fun to read and Richardson obviously knows a lot about ballet and about the life of a professional performer. While the writing is good, I found the pacing a bit odd, as sometimes an important event is built up to, but then we don't get to experience the event itself, or only briefly - we often next see Moth after the event and only get to read about her feelings about how it went. But Moth and the other main characters are well-developed, and I'm sure they would be much-enjoyed by a young reader.
This edition contains some pretty awful illustrations, which the book could have done without.
The first book takes place when Moth Graham is 11 and tells how she leaves her family and small town to live with her elderly Great-Aunt Marion so that she can go to the Fortune School of Dancing. In the second book, which takes place the following year, Moth has the opportunity to take part in a professional performance of The Nutcracker. In the last book, Moth is in the final year at Fortune and is preparing for her audition for the Royal Ballet School.
The stories are fun to read and Richardson obviously knows a lot about ballet and about the life of a professional performer. While the writing is good, I found the pacing a bit odd, as sometimes an important event is built up to, but then we don't get to experience the event itself, or only briefly - we often next see Moth after the event and only get to read about her feelings about how it went. But Moth and the other main characters are well-developed, and I'm sure they would be much-enjoyed by a young reader.
This edition contains some pretty awful illustrations, which the book could have done without.
July 19, 2014
The trials and tribulations of an aspiring ballerina set in the 1950s.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews