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. ( )

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. ( )

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/2024/01/gemma-by-noel-streatfeild.html ( )

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. ( )

One of Streatfeild's best stories. Daughter of a film star,herself a famous child actor, Gemma Bow is sent to live with her aunt, uncle and cousins in the little town of Headstone while her mother is working in America. How will she react to being a nobody for the first time in her life? ( )