Thursday's Children

"Thursday's child has far to go" says the nursery rhyme, and never was the saying more apt than it was for Doone Penny, sixth and youngest child of a London greengrocer. In this fine and involving novel Rumer Godden writes of Doone's determination against all odds to become a ballet dancer -- a magical tale of fire and spirit.

Doone's difficulties begin at home, for it is actually his pretty, talented, and spoiled sister, Crystal, on whom Ma, a onetime chorus girl, has set all her hopes and dreams of ballet glory, and on whom lessons are lavished by this family of very modest means. When Doone at the age of eight carries Crystal's shoes to her class and first hears, sees, and accidentally participates in dance, he is struck as if by a sorcerer's spell. But far from encouraging him, his parents are appalled -- his mother because Crystal is all, and his father, of course, because ballet is "sissy." And adding to the chorus of contempt are four bullying older brothers.

Fiercely, Doone follows unbidden in Crystal's wake as they move from faded but loving Madame Tamara's local classes all the way to the undreamed-of heights of the Ballet School at Queen's Chase.