Today’s video is a lament over the gone-out-of-printness of FOX MAKES FRIENDS by Adam Relf.

Thus, I have invented a new category: books I love fiercely that are out of print. Books whose out-of-printness I do not understand. The first on the list: MOVIE SHOES by Noel Streatfield, originally published in the UK as THE PAINTED GARDEN. It was a toss-up between this and SKATING SHOES (UK title: WHITE BOOTS) but in the end MOVIE SHOES won.

This is inspired by the fact that PARTY SHOES, the only Shoes book I do not own, is back in print. PARTY SHOES is near-impossible to find used at a decent price. I know – I’ve been looking for years. I am very happy that soon I will own PARTY SHOES, but honestly, if I were going to bring a Shoes book back into print, it would not be PARTY. (It wouldn’t be DANCING SHOES, either, which is also in print – it’s a fine book but not as good as MOVIE and SKATING.)

Anyway. MOVIE SHOES! Love love love love. Rachel, Tim and Jane Winter live in London with their mother, their father (who was in an accident and is out of work and ill as a result) and their nurse, Peaseblossom (not her real name). Mr. Winter really needs to go somewhere warm for the winter, and has an aunt in California, but the family can’t afford to go – until Peaseblossom’s aunt conveniently dies and leaves her exactly the amount of money they need to go (ah, children’s books!). This is very disappointing to the children – Rachel is at Madame Fidolia’s Academy For Dancing and Stage Training and has just been picked for her first professional dancing role; Tim (a talented pianist) has just been offered the chance to play for a famous musician; and Jane will have to leave behind her beloved dog. But off to California they go anyway.

Rachel and Tim are much nicer about it than Jane, who it must be said is more than a bit of a sourpuss. They arrive in California to live with weird, grumpy Aunt Cora, and Mr. Winter starts to feel better. Things improve for Rachel and Tim almost immediately – Mme. Fidolia’s arranged for Rachel to take lessons from her famous student, Posy Fossil (from BALLET SHOES), and Tim finds a bit of a job playing the piano in a drugstore for the lunch customers.

Jane is more miserable than ever, and finds herself walking miserably along the beach one day where she finds a dog tied up on a lead. She angrily confronts the dog’s owner, who turns out to be a movie director. And Jane turns out to be exactly the kind of personality he wants to play Mary in a movie of THE SECRET GARDEN, despite her never having acted before.

The story of how the movie is made (and what happens to the rest of the family while it’s going on) is at turns hilarious, moving, dramatic and fun. The differing personalities of the three siblings remind the reader of Pauline, Petrova and Posy, but the view into the world of movies, dance and classical music make this a very different book. I really have no idea why this book is out of print and wish fervently that Random House would rectify that straight away.