In these shoes ?

[venta]

Huh. While writing the previous entry, I was casting about for a link to Noel Streatfeild's The Circus Is Coming. I didn't find one straight off, so didn't bother hunting.

I did, however, notice a few books (Circus Shoes, Dancing Shoes, Movie Shoes...) which I'd never heard of. Which is odd, because I'd thought I was pretty well up on my Streatfeild. Ooh, I thought, new books to hunt.

Now I've found this page, which explains all. They're not different books at all, merely old familiar ones retitled (The Circus Is Coming, Wintle's Wonders, The Painted Garden for the examples above). It seems they've renamed a whole bunch of books to create a ... Shoes series. Why ? They aren't a series, the books don't follow on. Admittedly, some characters crop up in slightly in more than one book, but barely enough to justify calling it a series.

In some cases (like Skating Shoes, formerly White Boots) the new titles don't even make much sense. You don't ice skate in shoes.

Dammit, I don't like it. Put them back.

Comments

[white_hart]

I think that's an Americanism, and is quite an old development - having lived in America from ages 7-9 I remember being disappointed by getting books from the library there that turned out to be ones I'd read under a different title, and then again on my return to England.

Even at the age of nine I thought this was pretty damn stupid - on a par with the American library's refusal to shelve "Miss Read"'s books under 'R' but instead insisting on putting them under whatever the author's real surname was.

[venta.livejournal.com]

She wasn't called Miss Read ? Well. Fancy that. I don't think I'd even registered that.

I must re-read those. I chomped my way through a whole bunch of them aged about ten, and loved them.

[white_hart]

Mrs Dora Saint, apparently. Lovely books - Miss Clare Remembers was a particular favourite of mine at one time. Sadly it seems to be out of print at the moment, although Amazon seems to indicate that a lot of her books are being re-issued in omnibus form...