"Ballet Shoes" by Noel Streatfeild is one of the greatest theatre / dance novels, and children's novels, of all time. What is striking though are the number of other stories, plays and books referred to in it. I read my first Shakespeares because of this book.
I had some fun finding the references - the two French plays do exist! - and a few times I have substituted another 1930s book as a close equivalent. Overall though, it does show what was on the bookshelf of a well-educated 1930s British child or teenager.
Have fun, and wallow in nostalgia.
