Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Elizabeth Kiem reviewed by Julia Jones

If you love books about the ballet (suffer from enduring nostalgia for Noel Streatfield for instance?) as well relishing thrillers and the murky history of modern Russia, then you may already have come across these two YA novels by Elizabeth Kiem. I've read them in the wrong order: first Hider, Seeker, Secret Keeper (published 2014) which I reviewed for the Bookbag and now the first volume, Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy (2013). Dancer, Daughter focuses on seventeen year old Marina Dukovskaya whose mother, Svetlana, has been principal ballerina at the iconic Bolshoi Ballet for a decade and is now a National Treasure, a Soviet Cultural icon – a key Soviet asset in the celebrity Cold War.

Or is she? The story begins in Moscow, November 1982 on the day of Leonid Brezhnev's death. Aspirant ballerina Marina is, as usual, measuring out her day with a precise number of tendus, frappes and fouettes, in the advanced repertory academy where she and the other stars of the future are distorting their feet and bloodying their toes to learn their trade. Her mind is mainly full of the forthcoming results of a pop music competition and she ignores veiled hints about possible defections and the jealousy of her class mates for her gorgeous new coat, a gift, naturally, for her mother. Marina works hard for her art but takes her life of privilege for granted. On this night, however, the TV First Channel replaces its regular programmes with a film of the Bolshoi's Swan Lake. There are no explanations, no national news or results from the music competition – and Svetlana Dukovskaya doesn't come home.

Two days later Marina and her father learn that Svetlana has been institutionalised. She has apparently suffered a breakdown and has been taken into custody by the State Psychiatric Directorate. Marina's father, a scientist, makes puzzling comments about bacterial warfare and uses the word 'escape'. The word hits Marina like an electric shock or 'the jolt up your spine when you land a jump poorly […] My parents wanted to abandon the Motherland. And they were calling it “escape”?' The following day they get a call from the director of the Bolshoi – Marina has been dismissed. Her father is taken in for questioning, though he is then released. On the day of Brezhnev's funeral, they flee to America. 'I understand the system […] The rules are: if you pose a problem for the Party, if you are a risk to the People, you must be dispensed with. So we are following the rules. We are dispensing of ourselves before the KGB can do it for us.'

Elizabeth Kiem is a former dancer and a Russophile. She's a journalist who has lived in Russia and who acknowledges real life sources for much of her material. I wondered, briefly, what today's teens would make of this harking back to the post-Stalinist era before I realised that the writing in this first section of the novel – actions taken within a world bound by draconian, incomprehensible Rules – works particularly well as it is writing from within a dystopia. The subsequent, main section, following Marina and her father's attempts to make sense of their situation within the Russian emigrant population of Brooklyn, is atmospheric but more confusing as the hostile forces could equally be KGB, CIA, the bratva (Russian Mafia) – or none of them.

Dancer, Daughter has a twisting plot, where Marina's actions and reactions are as often fuelled by her teenage anger and disorientation as by tangible external threat. I wasn't sure she was quite as convincing a heroine as Lana, her daughter, in volume two and I wasn't sure that the integration of the actual dancing worked as successfully as the interpretations of Stravinky's Danse Sacrale in Hider, Seeker, Secret Keeper. I'd certainly recommend both novels – but I'd probably suggest that you read them the right way round.

Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy & Hider, Seeker, Secret Keeper by Elizabeth Kiem are both published by Soho Teens. 

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LISTEN TO THE NIGHTINGALE by Rumer Godden. Reviewed by Adèle Geras

The first thing I saw when I opened this book was a dedication to Marni Hodgkin and I felt this was a good omen. Hodgkin must have been Godden's editor at Macmillan when this book first appeared in 1992. She was also the very first person in this country who ever took a story of mine, back in the Seventies so I was delighted to think that I had shared an editor with Rumer Godden.

I wrote about the companion volume to this novel, THURSDAY'S CHILDREN, in February and said how much I enjoyed it. I liked this book even more. The two have a lot in common. They're both about children dedicating themselves to a life in dance, and particularly in the ballet with greater or lesser degrees of talent and commitment. They both have ballet school settings. They both emphasise the necessity of hard work and loyalty. They are old fashioned and you'd never guess that this was first came out a little over twenty years ago. It's not just that it seems to be describing a world that's long gone, but also that the pace, the events, the whole tone and emotional register of the book is something that I am pretty sure today's children's books editors would send back to its author saying: this is not for us. It isn't whizzy or pacey or exhaustingly action-packed. Things don't rush along. It's written carefully and plainly and has no truck with getting 'down with the kids' or wanting to be fashionable. As I said in February, if you didn't get the occasional reference to modes of transport or televisions, it could be set in Edwardian times.

The story concerns Lottie, who lives with her aunt at Verbena Road. She has learned to dance at Holbein's, a small theatre nearby and Madame Holbein is instrumental in getting her into Queen's Chase, which is based on White Lodge, the school where dancers in the Royal Ballet receive their training. At the begining of the story, Lottie acquires Prince, a beautiful King Charles Spaniel and he is both very important in the story and also takes a starring part in the final ballet of the novel, which is called The Birthday of the Infanta. Prince takes centre stage as the pet of the Infanta herself, depicted in Velasquez' masterpiece, Las Meninas.

One of the main themes of the book, alongside the dancing and the putting on of the ballet is the importance of families. Godden made no special case for nuclear families: theatrical companies, women on their own, a school: all these provide a family framework for the children in them and teach them many valuable life lessons. That friendship is sometimes difficult; that you can becomet impatient or irritated with those you love; that someone you thought of as your friend can occasionally bully you dreadfully or be horrible to you in many different ways - these truths are not skated over but dealt with frankly and fairly. Rivalries, jealousies, the tantrums attendant on life in the performing arts: they're all here, but so are the triumphs and the real pleasure of being on stage.

One of the things I've loved since early childhood is a book which has proper respect for details, especially details of clothes and food and in this novel you will find them in abundance. The preparations for Christmas are a particular delight.

I have to say that I think Virago, who are to be noisily acclaimed for bringing these and other books by Rumer Godden into the light again, haven't done the two books I've reviewed any favours in the matter of covers. Only the most ardent balletomanes will be naturally drawn to the images they've chosen, which is why I'm glad to have had the chance to review them. The cover they've given IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE (which I adored when I was much younger and can't wait to read again) is wonderful.

Meanwhile, do spread the word, via Twitter and Facebook about these reissues. It's an initiative I wish more publishers would emulate.

Publisher: Virago Modern Classics

Price: £6.99 pbk.

ISBN:9781844088508

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THURSDAY'S CHILDREN by Rumer Godden. Reviewed by Adèle Geras

Rumer Godden is a writer who, it seems to me, deserves to be rediscovered. Imagine my delight, therefore, when I learned that Virago were reissuing some of her children's books in the Virago Modern Classics series. THURSDAY'S CHILDREN and LISTEN TO THE NIGHTINGALE are due out in April this year and DARK HORSE and AN EPISODE OF SPARROWS in 2014. Godden's books which I reimember best are IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE, THE GREENGAGE SUMMER (which is a perfect YA book) and for children, MISS HAPPINESS AND MISS FLOWER and the wonderful THE DOLLS' HOUSE, which has in it Marchpane, one of the most fascinating of all fictional dolls. A quick check on the internet reveals that Pan will be publishing THE GREENGAGE SUMMER this month, but the children's books mentioned above are only available as Kindle editions or expensive second hand copies. So hats off to Virago for striving to bring this writer back into the limelight she ought never really to have left.

When I was young, this kind of book was what I really wanted to read: a family story, with lots of siblings living under one roof. I wanted a tale about ambition, preferably theatrical or balletic and I wanted lashings of detail and emotion. I wanted to be able to believe in the characters, and if I could identify with the main protagonist, so much the better. I wanted conflict. I wanted drama. In fact, I was looking for what I think a lot of children look for in books: something that's both aspirational and also exciting and moving. A book that was a mixture of the familiar and the exotic was always going to be a winner. In every one of these respects, Rumer Godden has fulfilled my dearest wishes and I enjoyed reading this book enormously. It took me right back to being ten or so, without at any point upsetting my adult self.

A word of warning: this is an old-fashioned book. It was first published in 1984 but even with the mention of television and supermarkets and what Godden calls 'ballpens', you get the feeling reading it that you are going back into the past. Which is fair enough. The 80s is the past and the speed of change in the last decade has been greater somehow than in the thirty years from 1970 to the end of the century. So young readers will be deprived of mobiles, texting, Ipods and all the accoutrements of a 'connected' childhood. They will not find the ubiquitous first person present tense but rather a straightforward, third person narrative which still manages to convey well the point of view of Doone, the young boy at the heart of the story.

The Pennys run a grocery shop. Ma Penny used to have ambitions of appearing on the stage herself but then she married Pa and proceeded to have lots of children, mostly boys.Crystal, the only girl, was a nice surprise and when Doone arrived the family were truly expecting another girl. They had the name 'Lorna' all lined up from one of their favourite novels, so when a boy appeared, 'Doone' was the only option. Beppo, an ex-circus performer who works in the shop, takes Doone under his wing as childcare is a bit hard to come by with so many children, but he's sent packing when Ma discovers that he's been teaching Doone circus tricks, such as tightrope walking. Doone is very upset at Beppo's dismissal. Ma Penny has ambitions for her only daughter and sends her to ballet lessons. Doone has to go with her...there's no one else to look after him. So from an early age he's exposed to music, and dancing and he falls in love with that whole world.

The novel tells the story of Doone's transformation into a ballet dancer and musician. It takes in conflicts with his sister, who is jealous of him and sometimes very unpleasant to him; a gravitation towards adults who understand him better than his parents, his progress through a school clearly based on White Lodge in Richmond, (the school for young ballet dancers who want to join the Royal Ballet,) and his eventual triumph over all the odds that life has thrown in his way. It's a constant roller coaster of events, people, highs and lows, successes and disappointments and there's a great deal of detail about dance, music, and the customs of this wonderful school. I've done events there as a writer and I recognized it at once. I do recommend this novel to anyone who's interested in dancing, of course, but also for every child who's wanted to be appreciated for him/herself and not pushed into some pre-ordained role in the family. It celebrates independence, hard work, discipline and cooperation. It encourages those who regard themselves as not quite the same as everyone else. It's hugely enjoyable and I hope that lots of aspiring ballet dancers will buy it. I suppose with all those ballet shoes on the cover, it's not going to be immediately picked up by boys, but if you have a possible 'proper little Nooryev'* in the family, they would love it too.

My review of LISTEN TO THE NIGHTINGALE will appear on this site on March 14th, 2013.

*For anyone who doesn't know it, A PROPER LITTLE NOOREYEV' by Jean Ure is a wonderful book about a boy who wants to be a dancer. Also highly recommended if you can find it. Publisher: VIRAGO MODERN CLASSICS Price: £6.99 Format: Paperback. ISBN: 978 1844088485

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