The Ballet Dress

<p style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:8.0pt;margin-left:0cm;font-size:15px;font-family:Calibrisans-serif;'><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;>A</span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;> barefoot Mary has danced</span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;> t</span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;>o soaring ballet music from an old gramophone in her back garden ever since she learned to walk. Her head is filled with dreams of someday becoming a ballerina. Even when she is old enough to go to school she rushe</span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;>s</span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;> home everyday and with brown paper wings pinned to her shoulders she dances and dances until darkness falls. When at last</span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;> </span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;>a dance teacher comes to her small town she learns to arabesque and plié and leap gracefully through the air. After a while she is chosen to perform a solo in a town hall concert. She is filled with both pride and anxiety. She needs a ballet dress. But there </span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;>is a</span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;> problem</span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;>: i</span><span style=font-size:19px;color:black;background:white;>t is wartime. When she visits a draper’s shop she learns that there is no fabric suitable for making her dress. She is devastated. Can her dream of becoming a ballet dancer ever come true? And will her mother somehow find a way to make her a ballet dress?</span></p>