The Magic Pointe Shoes (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780228875772)

Benedicte 'Bennie' Charlton is a twelve-year-old girl who loves to dance and dreams of becoming a famous ballerina one day. She has a best friend Eve who she has been dancing with ever since they were little. She also has a rival named Chelsea who likes to make sure everybody knows that she is the best dancer at their ballet school. After Bennie beats Chelsea at a major competition, Chelsea retaliates by sabotaging her handmade tutu.

Devastated, Bennie believes she will never be able to beat Chelsea and gain the self-confidence needed to become a successful dancer. While in the change rooms at the end of the competition, Bennie loses her ballet shoes and finds a pair of pointe shoes lying alone on the floor. Worried that her mum will be upset for losing them, Bennie takes the pointe shoes until she can find her own.

One day while practicing before her ballet class, Bennie's newly found pointe shoes begin to glow, and they transport her to Paris, where she becomes the lead in a production of Swan Lake. Confused but elated at her experience in the City of Lights, she finds that each time she puts on these pointe shoes she is transported all over the world, performing as the lead ballerina for major ballet companies. When the lead for Sleeping Beauty becomes available at her own ballet school, she auditions effortlessly and is successful at being given the lead role as Aurora, ahead of Chelsea.

When her magic pointes shoes are stolen by Chelsea, her self-confidence is destroyed and she tells herself that she cannot perform without her magic pointe shoes, particularly when Chelsea is given her role. Bennie must use her own internal strength and confidence to get the role back from Chelsea and prove to herself that it wasn't because of the magic pointe shoes but because of her own skills as a ballerina.