"The Bell Family" by Noel Streatfeild

This was such a charming book to read aloud to my kids!  The Bell family live in London.  In the shabby but respectable part.  Alex Bell is an optimistic, kind, firm clergyman.  His wife Cathy is sensible, practical, but also joyful and sweet.  Their oldest son Paul wants to be a doctor but worries he should choose a more profitable career path so he could help his family financially before long.  Jane is a talented dancer who yearns for good dancing lessons.  Ginnie is a free spirit who gets into a lot of mischief because she never stops to think twice about consequences.  Angus is cute and funny, with a wonderful singing voice and some talent at dancing too.

Together, the Bell family has many little adventures that all tie together around the theme of trying to get better dancing lessons for Jane.  This was originally a radio serial for BBC that ran for six years, and then Streatfeild put some of their adventures into a book too.  Streatfeild grew up in a big, fairly poor family with a vicar for a father too, and I expect that's what gives this book its feel of grounded authenticity.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Good, clean, wholesome, uplifting, and funny stuff. 

This is my 15th book read for my fourth Classics Club list and my 30th from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.