No Ballet Shoes in Syria by Catherine Bruton

"If you go to a new country because your home is dangerous, 

then you ask for 'asylum'. It means a safe place."

"And if the country will let you stay - then you are a refugee."

"Refugee meant safety, it meant staying. It meant a future."

Aya has arrived in Manchester from Aleppo. Sitting at the community centre waiting for the family case worker, Aya hears the sounds of a ballet lesson coming from a room upstairs. Back in Syria Aya had loved her ballet classes. Dance brings her great joy. She leaves her silent mother and baby brother and moves quietly upstairs so she can see the lesson. "There was no sand on the floor, and the sky through the windows was English blue, not Syrian gold, but otherwise Aya could have been back in Aleppo. Back at home - before the war - before everything."

Home for this refugee family is a hotel. They may be deported. Daily life is a heart-wrenching struggle.

"They hadn't been able to bring much when they left Syria. They had fled in a hurry with only the clothes they were wearing and one bag each. Sometimes Aya thought of her room back at home and all the treasures she liked to collect. ... In comparison, this room - with its single lightbulb, bare walls, ripped curtains and the damp patch on the ceiling - felt more like a prison cell than a home."

It seems impossible that Aya will be able to join this ballet class and through this find friends and even more importantly that her family will find a way to stay in this new country.

I mentioned in a previous post - this book is a five start (ten out of ten) book!

It seems odd to be drawn to ballet stories when I have no dancing skill or experience but I have been reading ballet stories since I was very young. I especially adored the Lorna Hill Sadler's Wells stories and I was delighted to see Catherine Bruton mentioned this in her afterword. Catherine also read many other books as a child such as The Silver Sword and When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit and says "I discovered there was a new kind of book to love - stories that could open your eyes, change the way you saw the world, make you ask questions, expand your horizons, enrich your soul - switch on lightbulbs in your head!"  The beautiful thing about this quote is that this is exactly what Catherine's book No Ballet Shoes in Syria did for me.  Of course No Ballet Shoes in Syria is SO much more than a ballet story as you can see from my opening quote.

Here is a set of discussion notes. It would be great to use this book as part of a young reader book club.

You can hear Catherine Bruton describe why and how she wrote this book and here Catherine reads chapter one from her book.

The inclusion of regular flashbacks describing Aya’s former life and her journey to the UK are hugely powerful, making the horrors of civil war and the dangers of the journey frighteningly real. The detail in these scenes is impressive and, without preaching, they will serve to raise awareness in readers. Madge Eekal Reviews

This nuanced gentle portrayal of a young Syrian girl is a fantastic read and an eye-opening book. Minerva Reads