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Gemma #1
Gemma
Accustomed to a glamorous life as a famous young movie star, eleven-year-old Gemma is horrified when, because of her mother's film career, she is sent to live with her "dull" and unknown cousins in a small industrial town.
157 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1968
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279 people want to read
About the author
Noel Streatfeild
163 books613 followersMary Noel Streatfeild, known as Noel Streatfeild, was an author best known and loved for her children's books, including Ballet Shoes and Circus Shoes. She also wrote romances under the pseudonym
Susan Scarlett
.
She was born on Christmas Eve, 1895, the daughter of William Champion Streatfeild and Janet Venn and the second of six children to be born to the couple. Sister Ruth was the oldest, after Noel came Barbara, William ('Bill'), Joyce (who died of TB prior to her second birthday) and Richenda. Ruth and Noel attended Hastings and St. Leonard's Ladies' College in 1910. As an adult, she began theater work, and spent approximately 10 years in the theater.
During the Great War, in 1915 Noel worked first as a volunteer in a soldier's hospital kitchen near Eastbourne Vicarage and later produced two plays with her sister Ruth. When things took a turn for the worse on the Front in 1916 she moved to London and obtained a job making munitions in Woolwich Arsenal. At the end of the war in January 1919, Noel enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Art (later Royal Academy) in London.
In 1930, she began writing her first adult novel, The Whicharts, published in 1931. In June 1932, she was elected to membership of PEN. Early in 1936, Mabel Carey, children's editor of J. M. Dent and Sons, asks Noel to write a children's story about the theatre, which led to Noel completing Ballet Shoes in mid-1936. In 28 September 1936, when Ballet Shoes was published, it became an immediate best seller.
According to Angela Bull, Ballet Shoes was a reworked version of The Whicharts. Elder sister Ruth Gervis illustrated the book, which was published on the 28th September, 1936. At the time, the plot and general 'attitude' of the book was highly original, and destined to provide an outline for countless other ballet books down the years until this day. The first known book to be set at a stage school, the first ballet story to be set in London, the first to feature upper middle class society, the first to show the limits of amateurism and possibly the first to show children as self-reliant, able to survive without running to grownups when things went wrong.
In 1937, Noel traveled with Bertram Mills Circus to research The Circus is Coming (also known as Circus Shoes). She won the Carnegie gold medal in February 1939 for this book. In 1940, World War II began, and Noel began war-related work from 1940-1945. During this time, she wrote four adult novels, five children's books, nine romances, and innumerable articles and short stories. On May 10th, 1941, her flat was destroyed by a bomb. Shortly after WWII is over, in 1947, Noel traveled to America to research film studios for her book The Painted Garden. In 1949, she began delivering lectures on children's books. Between 1949 and 1953, her plays, The Bell Family radio serials played on the Children's Hour and were frequently voted top play of the year.
Early in 1960s, she decided to stop writing adult novels, but did write some autobiographical novels, such as A Vicarage Family in 1963. She also had written 12 romance novels under the pen name "Susan Scarlett." Her children's books number at least 58 titles. From July to December 1979, she suffered a series of small strokes and moved into a nursing home. In 1983, she received the honor Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). On 11 September 1986, she passed away in a nursing home.
She was born on Christmas Eve, 1895, the daughter of William Champion Streatfeild and Janet Venn and the second of six children to be born to the couple. Sister Ruth was the oldest, after Noel came Barbara, William ('Bill'), Joyce (who died of TB prior to her second birthday) and Richenda. Ruth and Noel attended Hastings and St. Leonard's Ladies' College in 1910. As an adult, she began theater work, and spent approximately 10 years in the theater.
During the Great War, in 1915 Noel worked first as a volunteer in a soldier's hospital kitchen near Eastbourne Vicarage and later produced two plays with her sister Ruth. When things took a turn for the worse on the Front in 1916 she moved to London and obtained a job making munitions in Woolwich Arsenal. At the end of the war in January 1919, Noel enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Art (later Royal Academy) in London.
In 1930, she began writing her first adult novel, The Whicharts, published in 1931. In June 1932, she was elected to membership of PEN. Early in 1936, Mabel Carey, children's editor of J. M. Dent and Sons, asks Noel to write a children's story about the theatre, which led to Noel completing Ballet Shoes in mid-1936. In 28 September 1936, when Ballet Shoes was published, it became an immediate best seller.
According to Angela Bull, Ballet Shoes was a reworked version of The Whicharts. Elder sister Ruth Gervis illustrated the book, which was published on the 28th September, 1936. At the time, the plot and general 'attitude' of the book was highly original, and destined to provide an outline for countless other ballet books down the years until this day. The first known book to be set at a stage school, the first ballet story to be set in London, the first to feature upper middle class society, the first to show the limits of amateurism and possibly the first to show children as self-reliant, able to survive without running to grownups when things went wrong.
In 1937, Noel traveled with Bertram Mills Circus to research The Circus is Coming (also known as Circus Shoes). She won the Carnegie gold medal in February 1939 for this book. In 1940, World War II began, and Noel began war-related work from 1940-1945. During this time, she wrote four adult novels, five children's books, nine romances, and innumerable articles and short stories. On May 10th, 1941, her flat was destroyed by a bomb. Shortly after WWII is over, in 1947, Noel traveled to America to research film studios for her book The Painted Garden. In 1949, she began delivering lectures on children's books. Between 1949 and 1953, her plays, The Bell Family radio serials played on the Children's Hour and were frequently voted top play of the year.
Early in 1960s, she decided to stop writing adult novels, but did write some autobiographical novels, such as A Vicarage Family in 1963. She also had written 12 romance novels under the pen name "Susan Scarlett." Her children's books number at least 58 titles. From July to December 1979, she suffered a series of small strokes and moved into a nursing home. In 1983, she received the honor Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). On 11 September 1986, she passed away in a nursing home.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
January 1, 2025
My last read of 2024 was a complete comfort read. I loved Noel Streatfeild as a child, including reading and re-reading her ‘Gemma’ series. I had the early 80s paperbacks, but I have no idea where they went over the years. Several years ago on a visit to the UK I was thrilled to come across some later (90s?) copies of a few of them and brought them home with me. I settled in happily with the first of them to close out the year.
Aside from a somewhat abrupt ending (very much setting up the next in the series), it was a delight. Eleven year old Gemma Bow is a film star sent to live with her cousins in an ordinary town and go to an ordinary school when her actor mother goes off to the US. Gemma is afraid of being perceived as ‘washed up’ by the other students, so adopts her cousins’ last name. She soon finds herself settling in, if struggling to cope with no longer being the special one in a busy and talented family. I enjoyed how distinctive each family member was, including the quite well-rounded parents, who must tackle money and career problems of their own. 3.5.
Aside from a somewhat abrupt ending (very much setting up the next in the series), it was a delight. Eleven year old Gemma Bow is a film star sent to live with her cousins in an ordinary town and go to an ordinary school when her actor mother goes off to the US. Gemma is afraid of being perceived as ‘washed up’ by the other students, so adopts her cousins’ last name. She soon finds herself settling in, if struggling to cope with no longer being the special one in a busy and talented family. I enjoyed how distinctive each family member was, including the quite well-rounded parents, who must tackle money and career problems of their own. 3.5.
May 27, 2020
What a delightful treat this book turned out to be! Despite being a fan of the Shoe series, I had never heard of this other NS series until a friend surprised me with a copy (thank you!). I thoroughly enjoyed it. As in the most popular of the Shoe books, Noel Streatfield has such a good understanding of the performing arts and what it means to be a child with a passion for dance/theater/music. I thrilled to all of this, given my own background. The characters are very well drawn for such a relatively short book. Even the parents are full-fledged individuals, with their own hopes and dreams and sorrows, and I so loved that they were “Alice” and “Phillip” and quite involved in the story. I especially loved the chapter where Gemma and Phillip bond over an understanding of what it means to have your passion (his music career, her acting career) taken away from you. There is adversity but also joy; positive attitudes prevail but sometimes one can have darker moods. It all feels authentic. Gemma could have been an incredibly obnoxious character in the hands of a less skilled author (spoiled child star that she is initially) but she is well developed here; her negative qualities are never excused, yet one is also sympathetic and willing to forgive given her backstory. I appreciate the way she learns to find happiness in her new life, to see some aspects of the world in a new light; yet the change feels natural, she still feels like the same Gemma, it is authentic—and she holds onto her love of performing. I enjoyed this so much I plan to read the next book in the series.
May 12, 2008
Finally! Gemma is the one title character in a Streatfeild book who is not so aggravatingly virtuous. In fact, she is delightfully flawed, stuck up and obnoxious, and for that reason, I loved her.
June 16, 2022
A welcome revisit of one of my favourite Streatfeild series that really reflects the culture of 1960s England. It feels like coming home.
January 31, 2024
This is the first of the four 'Gemma' books, written as contemporary novels in the late 1960s. I read this many times as a child and teenager, and it very much reflected everyday life as I knew it, as a child in that era. It features a typical Streatfeild family with very little money and lots of talent.
It’s a nice tale of maturing friendships and self-discovery. 11-year-old Gemma finds that there are more important things in life than money and nice clothes, and her three cousins gain a lot from her joining their family.
Re-reading it in the last couple of days, I realise again that what matters most to me in any book is the characterisation. I could picture the whole family in my mind; I could almost hear their voices in my head. Streatfeild doesn’t weigh down her readers in descriptions, but the interactions between people feel realistic, and perhaps evocative of my own childhood. Admittedly an excess of talent in three siblings - with a very ordinary mother - is unlikely, but that’s a premise we are given in the first chapter. The rest follows.
I know most modern children want faster-paced books with lots of excitement and suspense; but for those who are eclectic readers, enjoying the classics and mid-century novels of my own childhood, I would recommend this book highly. Ideal for fluent readers of about eight and upwards, or as a bedtime read-aloud. Or, indeed, for adults like me wanting a bit of nostalgia.
Latest longer review: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
It’s a nice tale of maturing friendships and self-discovery. 11-year-old Gemma finds that there are more important things in life than money and nice clothes, and her three cousins gain a lot from her joining their family.
Re-reading it in the last couple of days, I realise again that what matters most to me in any book is the characterisation. I could picture the whole family in my mind; I could almost hear their voices in my head. Streatfeild doesn’t weigh down her readers in descriptions, but the interactions between people feel realistic, and perhaps evocative of my own childhood. Admittedly an excess of talent in three siblings - with a very ordinary mother - is unlikely, but that’s a premise we are given in the first chapter. The rest follows.
I know most modern children want faster-paced books with lots of excitement and suspense; but for those who are eclectic readers, enjoying the classics and mid-century novels of my own childhood, I would recommend this book highly. Ideal for fluent readers of about eight and upwards, or as a bedtime read-aloud. Or, indeed, for adults like me wanting a bit of nostalgia.
Latest longer review: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
March 13, 2021
An overlooked series, even by me! My review: https://perfectretort.blogspot.com/20...
April 4, 2025
The Robinsons lived in Headstone, an industrial town about 150 miles north of London. There were five of them: father, mother and three children.
With this innocuous beginning the author of the famous Shoes sequence of children’s fiction initiated a quartet of books featuring a family bursting with talents in the performing arts who are joined by the children’s cousin Gemma, their maternal aunt’s daughter.
Less Swiss Family Robinson but not quite Von Trapp family, the Headstone Robinsons in their terraced house will seem a massive comedown for young Gemma Bow, star of TV serials and films; the eleven-year-old is virtually foisted onto the Robinsons when her mother Rowena gets a contract to work for a film studio in the States.
How will Gemma get on with her uncle and aunt – Philip and Alice – and what will siblings Ann, Lydia and Robin make of her? What exactly is distressing her about joining the local comprehensive school, and will her fears about this provincial town turning out really dull prove well founded?
As a talented child actor Gemma was in demand for various screen roles, just as her mother Rowena was. Cosseted by film and TV production staff, with a tame governess tutoring and chaperoning her, Gemma was doing well – much as Hayley Mills did in the early sixties in films like The Parent Trap and Pollyanna. That is, she was riding high until her mother was spotted starring in a British TV serial by Hollywood and lured across the Atlantic, and Gemma has to be left behind.
As well as feelings of abandonment and the fear of future media success now eluding her, Gemma has anxieties about being recognised and taunted for her apparent comedown – especially in Headstone, a name perhaps signifying the graveyard of her ambitions. And what a comedown for a star, to end up in a terraced house in a nondescript street after the luxuries of her previous lifestyle!
However, despite its title, Gemma is as much about the Robinson family as it is about the child star. The father Philip has had his own comedown, having to retire as a first violin in the town’s prestigious orchestra because of rheumatism, and mother Alice has taken a part-time job to help keep the wolf from the door. Meanwhile the children have budding talents seeking nurture – Ann who is an asset to any choir she is part of, Lydia with the promise of being a gifted dancer, and Robin who hopes to gain a choral scholarship to a music school.
This feelgood novel, superficially a Cinderella story, is made richer by all the main characters having some foibles mixed in with each individual’s forte: nobody is absolutely perfect (though Alice, the sister of self-centred Rowena, approaches this state) but all feel like rounded human beings, complete with their own lives. Still, our attention is ever drawn to Gemma – how solutions to disguise her true identity are found, how opportunities present themselves for her to shine without the baggage of fame, and how she has to screw up her fears and behave authentically instead of merely acting out roles.
How does Streatfeild make her characters more than just cut-out figures in a toy theatre? By doing what every author worth their salt does, investing a bit of themselves in their creations. For example, Gemma gets into trouble for clandestinely arranging for a school jotter to be passed around during lessons for students to continue a story about Launcelot Panther, a daring spy. To get her own back she finds it easy, “trained in the use of words and inflections, to bait the teachers with answers which sounded harmless but could also be read as rude.”
This act of rebellion was inspired by an incident which took place when Streatfeild attended Hastings and St. Leonard’s Ladies’ College: here she’d produced a class magazine which was then banned by the headmistress, so young Noel’s response was to found the Little Grey Bows Society, the aim of which was to be rude to teachers. Is it mere coincidence that Gemma Bow, whose surname was the same as Hollywood legend Clara Bow (who’d died as recently as 1965), also happens to echo the name of the Little Grey Bows Society?¹
Will Gemma eventually find personal equanimity as well as legitimate outlets for her acting talents on the public stage? This is what one hopes for by the end of this novel, but this won’t be the end of the story for Gemma and her cousins: Gemma and Sisters was the first sequel, also published in 1968, followed in quick succession by two more, Gemma Alone and Good-Bye, Gemma the next year. One hopes they will be as charming and of their time as the first in the series.
___________________
¹ I drew the information about the Little Grey Bows Society from this online source: https://www.whitegauntlet.com.au/noel...
May 4, 2020
I've always been very fond of Noel Steatfeild's books about families who struggle to make ends meet and where it's important that the kids get scholarships and help earn money for their families. Her children despite their adult responsibilities are never perfect, though perhaps still better than real children. The books were unfortunately mostly marketed with almost identical titles all involving the word "Shoe" in the USA, while in Britain only the first ( Ballet Shoes published in the 1930s) had Shoe in the title.
Gemma takes place in the 1960s. The Robinsons are a musical family living in a ordinary small town. Money is tight because the father's hands have developed arthritis and he can no longer play the violinist well enough for the rather famous orchestra located in their town. Gemma is the cousin of the children who had been a quite successful child star, but is now at an awkward age where her talents are no longer wanted and she's not yet old enough to do paid work in front of live audiences. (Side note: in other books of Streatfeild's the importance of finally turning twelve is a big deal.) Gemma is more than a big spoiled, but she's also been abandoned by her mother and she's scared of going to a big school for the first time.
I really liked how she was portrayed as someone with the capacity to change and grow. I also really liked how we were allowed to see the adults be real humans with their own foibles. Both the parents and a number of the teachers get real moments. All too often children don't get to see that adults don't always have all the answers either and that they can make mistakes or misjudge you.
Points off for recycling Posey (from Ballet Shoes) to create Lydia. Though I thoroughly enjoyed her anyway.
Gemma takes place in the 1960s. The Robinsons are a musical family living in a ordinary small town. Money is tight because the father's hands have developed arthritis and he can no longer play the violinist well enough for the rather famous orchestra located in their town. Gemma is the cousin of the children who had been a quite successful child star, but is now at an awkward age where her talents are no longer wanted and she's not yet old enough to do paid work in front of live audiences. (Side note: in other books of Streatfeild's the importance of finally turning twelve is a big deal.) Gemma is more than a big spoiled, but she's also been abandoned by her mother and she's scared of going to a big school for the first time.
I really liked how she was portrayed as someone with the capacity to change and grow. I also really liked how we were allowed to see the adults be real humans with their own foibles. Both the parents and a number of the teachers get real moments. All too often children don't get to see that adults don't always have all the answers either and that they can make mistakes or misjudge you.
Points off for recycling Posey (from Ballet Shoes) to create Lydia. Though I thoroughly enjoyed her anyway.
January 6, 2009
I enjoyed this book, although there were things about it that annoyed me.
1. Lydia was exactly the same as Posy from Ballet Shoes. It seems Noel Streatfield believes if you are talented at dancing, you are also by extension imperious, unselfconsiously arrogant and totally free from moral scruples, but supposedly so charming and funny that you can't help being lovable anyway. It irritated me because I DIDN'T love her anyway (or Posy either for that matter) and was aggravated by the way her family just let her get away with murder because 'oh, she's a talented dancer, that's the only thing that matters to her, that's just what she's like'. And the way she was always lying to people at the start of the book but being excused for it because she "didn't know what a lie was" is such rubbish. Of course she knew.
2. All of them were a bit Mary Sue-ish, so amazingly talented and wonderful and kind and intelligent, blah blah. Gemma was the only exception as she actually had faults, so I liked her best.
3. The whole 'rich, stuck-up cousin comes to stay with the family and has all the conceit knocked out of her and realizes that a simple way of life is best after all' plotline is very overdone in children's literature.
But yeah, other than that it was a good read, interesting all the way through.
1. Lydia was exactly the same as Posy from Ballet Shoes. It seems Noel Streatfield believes if you are talented at dancing, you are also by extension imperious, unselfconsiously arrogant and totally free from moral scruples, but supposedly so charming and funny that you can't help being lovable anyway. It irritated me because I DIDN'T love her anyway (or Posy either for that matter) and was aggravated by the way her family just let her get away with murder because 'oh, she's a talented dancer, that's the only thing that matters to her, that's just what she's like'. And the way she was always lying to people at the start of the book but being excused for it because she "didn't know what a lie was" is such rubbish. Of course she knew.
2. All of them were a bit Mary Sue-ish, so amazingly talented and wonderful and kind and intelligent, blah blah. Gemma was the only exception as she actually had faults, so I liked her best.
3. The whole 'rich, stuck-up cousin comes to stay with the family and has all the conceit knocked out of her and realizes that a simple way of life is best after all' plotline is very overdone in children's literature.
But yeah, other than that it was a good read, interesting all the way through.
February 14, 2023
Two and a half stars. The first part of the book was interesting enough, being the reverse of the standard Streatfield child's novel; instead of normal kids having to learn to fit in to the theatre, dance troupe, or circus, we have Gemma, an established child actress, having to fit in at a normal school and a normal family in an industrial town. But of course (of course!) everyone in the "normal" family is musical in one way or another--except of course the mother who is content to work a part time job and feed and clothe the family.
The first half of the book was interesting enough, but when the fundraising events started it all became very surface somehow. There's a lot of talk about rehearsals and such but always second hand; we never see anything! I was amused that Ann "has" to go to church, but only because she's a soloist, not because anyone in the family wants to attend! Apparently she and her choirboy brother go by themselves if they go.
I didn't seem to notice any great climactic episode, but then it's the first novel in--you guessed it--a series. Sigh. Even Streatfield.
The first half of the book was interesting enough, but when the fundraising events started it all became very surface somehow. There's a lot of talk about rehearsals and such but always second hand; we never see anything! I was amused that Ann "has" to go to church, but only because she's a soloist, not because anyone in the family wants to attend! Apparently she and her choirboy brother go by themselves if they go.
I didn't seem to notice any great climactic episode, but then it's the first novel in--you guessed it--a series. Sigh. Even Streatfield.
January 3, 2026
Literature for Young Adults in the forties, the fifties and even the sixties is vastly different from one now. Of course the circumstances were different but there was no mollycoddling.
Take the case of Gemma, here was a young girl who had been a renowned child artiste and now without any roles as she was eleven and no longer a child.
Her Mother on the other hand has had an offer for a splendid movie role in the United States and she tells Gemma,
‘I don’t want you in the United States, I cannot manage a child there’ and so it was that Gemma went to live with her Aunt Alice and her three cousins. Gemma’s problem was ‘how will I live with these hick cousins of mine who live in this small industrial town.’
Gemma however was in for a surprise; her cousins with little money to spare were talented. Ann and Robin sang beautifully and Lydia was a ballet dancer, and very proud of her dancing.
Gemma, is utterly surprised when her uncle loses his job... there is sadness no doubt, but everyone gears up, there a lot of cuts and pocket money is hardly there. Aunt Alice starts working as a receptionist and everyone pitches in to help with after school jobs.
Gemma in the course of two years learns a great deal from the Robinsons and instead of moaning and groaning learns to live very happily with all sorts of financial limitations.
Noel Streatfeild does not mince words; children are told exactly what is happening around them even the harshest truths. Children pool in their services and resources with the thought that they are working as a unit towards keeping a home afloat. Absolutely mature.
Take the case of Gemma, here was a young girl who had been a renowned child artiste and now without any roles as she was eleven and no longer a child.
Her Mother on the other hand has had an offer for a splendid movie role in the United States and she tells Gemma,
‘I don’t want you in the United States, I cannot manage a child there’ and so it was that Gemma went to live with her Aunt Alice and her three cousins. Gemma’s problem was ‘how will I live with these hick cousins of mine who live in this small industrial town.’
Gemma however was in for a surprise; her cousins with little money to spare were talented. Ann and Robin sang beautifully and Lydia was a ballet dancer, and very proud of her dancing.
Gemma, is utterly surprised when her uncle loses his job... there is sadness no doubt, but everyone gears up, there a lot of cuts and pocket money is hardly there. Aunt Alice starts working as a receptionist and everyone pitches in to help with after school jobs.
Gemma in the course of two years learns a great deal from the Robinsons and instead of moaning and groaning learns to live very happily with all sorts of financial limitations.
Noel Streatfeild does not mince words; children are told exactly what is happening around them even the harshest truths. Children pool in their services and resources with the thought that they are working as a unit towards keeping a home afloat. Absolutely mature.
April 2, 2025
This was a Carlisle acquisition and is a later Streatfeild talented children story. And I love this sort of thing. There is ballet in this - but it’s not the key focus. The Gemma of the title is the daughter of an actress, who has herself been a child star. But she’s reached the awkward age and the parts have dried up. Her mother however has been offered a part in a tv series and sends Gemma to stay with her sister and her husband and their children. Gemma has never lived a normal life - but her cousins are not what she expects - they musical in various ways and are quite happy to add Gemma to their lives and try and help her adjust. It’s charming.
February 11, 2019
Feeling nostalgic for my childhood I bought a second-hand copy of this book. It did not disappoint. Fantasy for children who like ballet, acting and or singing. If you are not good enough to be successful you can imagine you are by entering the world of this book. Characters are believable and distinct.
October 4, 2020
I'm not going to lie, I personally did not enjoy this book. I begun reading it as it was gifted to me for a birthday but at many points in the book I wanted to give up. Due to my rating I will not be progressing through the series, I instead will be journeying home to my beloved murder mysteries... 😏
July 21, 2024
Normally I love Streatfeild books (Ballet Shoes was my favourite book as a child) but this is not one of the memorable ones. I know it is the first in the series but it felt incomplete and we never really got to know any of the kids particularly well. If the books were smushed together it might have been better
February 12, 2018
Noel Streatfeild wrote just the sort of books I adored as a child - these children didn't just dream of being stars - they worked for it.
May 17, 2020
Great read for grade 5 or 6 or 7
Noel Streatfeild was mentioned in movie "You got mail"
Noel Streatfeild was mentioned in movie "You got mail"
September 6, 2021
Memories 💜
January 14, 2024
I need to read more of these!
November 28, 2015
Noel Streatfeild was a very prolific children’s author, probably still best known today for her first story, "Ballet Shoes," published in 1936. She continued writing for the next 50 years, until her death in 1986, and in 1968-1969 she published the four-book “Gemma Series,” of which "Gemma" is the first. Gemma Bow has been a child film star from a very early age, but at the age of 11 roles are drying up. When her actress mother is offered a Hollywood movie, Gemma is sent to live with her cousins in the industrial town of Headstone, north of London. She expects to find her relatives deadly dull, but she is really terrified of being made to attend the local school - she has only ever had a governess to teach her, and that governess was too in awe of her charge to push her to study those subjects that Gemma disliked, such as math, as a result of which Gemma is sure that she will be scorned as backward and pitied as a “washed-up” star. Her compassionate aunt comes up with the idea of substituting Gemma’s last name with that of the family, so that nobody will know who she really is, and then all Gemma has to do is be herself…. This is a slight novel in Streatfeild’s canon, certainly not up to the standard of "Ballet Shoes," but I enjoyed it anyway. I found it in a free book box in my neighbourhood and I suspect that it’s out of print, but if I run into the other three books in the series, I will pick them up just because it’s a quick read and, for someone who grew up reading Streatfeild’s work, it’s like comfort food for the reader, or a nice fuzzy blanket.
December 12, 2015
This is an old favorite. I've loved it since I first read it as a twelve-year-old. However, I now wonder if the name change could have worked. Perhaps if instead of Gemma, she had a more common given name. Otherwise it would take only one person the comment that the only Gemma she'd ever heard of was Gemma Bow, the film star. "You know, you look like her," someone might say. "In fact you are her!" And, poof, the game is up. Also, wouldn't her cousins have bragged to their friends that Gemma Bow was their cousin, and Rowena Alston their aunt?
That said this is still an enjoyable story. When Gemma's mother gets a film offer that takes her to Hollywood, Gemma is sent to live with her cousins, the Robinsons, in Headstone. Fearful of being thought "washed-up" she uses their name when she starts school at the local comprehensive. But even though she doesn't want anyone to know who she is, she also doesn't want to be a nobody. How she deals with this makes for a very interesting story. All of the characters are quite believable. The pageant put on by the comprehensive harks back to the one the children put on in Party Shoes, an earlier work by the same author.
This is an American edition in which some edits have been made, for example "storeroom" instead of "boxroom" and "Mom" instead of "Mum". I think it may also have been slightly abridged, as it didn't seem as long as the original English edition.
That said this is still an enjoyable story. When Gemma's mother gets a film offer that takes her to Hollywood, Gemma is sent to live with her cousins, the Robinsons, in Headstone. Fearful of being thought "washed-up" she uses their name when she starts school at the local comprehensive. But even though she doesn't want anyone to know who she is, she also doesn't want to be a nobody. How she deals with this makes for a very interesting story. All of the characters are quite believable. The pageant put on by the comprehensive harks back to the one the children put on in Party Shoes, an earlier work by the same author.
This is an American edition in which some edits have been made, for example "storeroom" instead of "boxroom" and "Mom" instead of "Mum". I think it may also have been slightly abridged, as it didn't seem as long as the original English edition.
January 4, 2016
The four Gemma books are an easy read, and effectively tell one longer story about Gemma's stay with the Robinsons. I know we're not supposed to like the Gemma books, because they are all modern; and my copies had the photo cover and the Betty Maxey illustrations, so they even looked a bit rubbishy. But I always liked the Robinson family, who lived in a fairly ordinary house like ours, and went to a comprehensive school like we did. Obviously we weren't as fabulously talented as the Robinsons and we didn't have a former child film star cousin living with us; but this clearly isn't the remote world of 1930s London, and what the Robinsons do seemed to be possible in the world I lived in.
So: if you are a fan of NS, the Gemma books are a bit different, but as usual she captures sibling bickering and family life exceptionally well and, as ever, it's an enjoyable ride.
So: if you are a fan of NS, the Gemma books are a bit different, but as usual she captures sibling bickering and family life exceptionally well and, as ever, it's an enjoyable ride.
October 18, 2016
As a child who had adored all of Noel Streatfeild's earlier books it was, nonetheless, an interesting change to read about a family and a lifestyle that reflected my own in many ways. The ordinary suburban house, local school, helping with the housework, etc. And even though we weren't as super talented as the Robinsons, I also recognised the music and dancing classes, the mums peeping through the windows to see how their child was doing and so on.
Lydia is actually one of my favourite Streatfeild characters. I like her feisty nature and the way she doesn't let rules and regulations get in her way. I also, re-reading as an adult, like the way that Noel Streatfeild so clearly shows how a large impersonal comprehensive is very much a sink or swim world. Studious conformists like Ann will do well there, but individual children who don't 'fit in' like Gemma, or struggle academically like her classmates in the lower stream, will flounder.
Lydia is actually one of my favourite Streatfeild characters. I like her feisty nature and the way she doesn't let rules and regulations get in her way. I also, re-reading as an adult, like the way that Noel Streatfeild so clearly shows how a large impersonal comprehensive is very much a sink or swim world. Studious conformists like Ann will do well there, but individual children who don't 'fit in' like Gemma, or struggle academically like her classmates in the lower stream, will flounder.
October 26, 2023
I came down with a stinking cold on my last day of teaching so had to re-read some Noel Streatfeild.
I remember first reading this when I was ill at boarding school in 2000 and was delighted to find this and most of the others in the girls sick bay.
Gemma Bow is a child actress who is sent to live with her aunt and uncle and cousins who live in Headstone. Naturally she struggles to go to a comprehensive school and misses her mother who is in Hollywood but she also learns about her talented cousins and life away from making movies.
As always, I love Streatfeild's characters and how Gemma and her cousins develop. I love how a holiday in Torworthy puts things into perspective for her and uncle Phillip too.
I remember first reading this when I was ill at boarding school in 2000 and was delighted to find this and most of the others in the girls sick bay.
Gemma Bow is a child actress who is sent to live with her aunt and uncle and cousins who live in Headstone. Naturally she struggles to go to a comprehensive school and misses her mother who is in Hollywood but she also learns about her talented cousins and life away from making movies.
As always, I love Streatfeild's characters and how Gemma and her cousins develop. I love how a holiday in Torworthy puts things into perspective for her and uncle Phillip too.
August 14, 2015
Very much a story about how to get over yourself, while also realizing that people want to be recognized as special. It's also about the positives of low key parenting.
Gemma's mom sounds horrible and she's been neglectful in that she didn't insure that Gemma was learning from the governess.
Lydia and Gemma keep this from being a story about perfect kids. Ann and Robin seem pretty perfect.
It's hard to believe that Gemma was never recognized, but the kids themselves say that she looks different than she did in the movies.
I don't know that you could register a kid for school now with a different last name than their documents. Apparently it's possible in the book.
Much better than Dancing Shoes for Anna.
Gemma's mom sounds horrible and she's been neglectful in that she didn't insure that Gemma was learning from the governess.
Lydia and Gemma keep this from being a story about perfect kids. Ann and Robin seem pretty perfect.
It's hard to believe that Gemma was never recognized, but the kids themselves say that she looks different than she did in the movies.
I don't know that you could register a kid for school now with a different last name than their documents. Apparently it's possible in the book.
Much better than Dancing Shoes for Anna.
October 11, 2015
A great book, pretty average for Streatfeild's books. This one actually reminds me a lot of Ballet Shoes. I really liked Gemma, but I didn't really think she got a very fair depiction - basically, she was only good at acting because she'd been "trained" in it since she was young. The reader gets the feeling that her cousins are the true talented ones, and she's just popular because of her material advantages. I beg to differ - acting is hard, no matter how much training you get. She's got some serious talent.
December 29, 2016
I have always loved Noel Streatfeild's books and as a child I got my library to ILL them for me or hunted through second hand book stores to find all of them. She tells the perfect "girls stories". I was always able to find one character in each book that was my favorite. They definitely stand up to re-reads.
December 3, 2009
Loved the entire GEMMA series. Bratty film star invades goody two shoes family.
November 9, 2012
This is the first one, but not my edition....
July 29, 2013
Good book, sweet and happy. A good book for girls
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