The Royal Ballet School Diaries

The Royal Ballet School Diaries is a book series written for adolescents aged 9-12 by Alexandra Moss. It is about a young girl named Ellie Brown, who has moved to Oxford from Chicago and learns about the prestigious Royal Ballet School and works hard by auditioning to get into the JAs (Junior Assosciates) Programs, which trains aspriring ballet dancers (girls and boys alike) to get ready for the Final Audition at the Royal Ballet School's Lower School for a spot to get in.

"This is a good book for middle school adolescents to read", says Find Articles.com.

Publishers Weekly Magazine says about the first book:

"The Royal Ballet School Diaries jets to a spirited start with this tale of a 10-year-old who moves from Chicago to England with her widowed mother, who has taken a job as a professor at Oxford. Still, Moss's facility for characterization and dialogue and her plot's carefully measured emotion will likely make readers wish to tune in for another performance."

Books in the Series

*Ellie's Chance to Dance
*Lara's Leap of Faith (formerly Lara's perfect performance)
*Isabelle's Perfect Performance (or Belle's Best Move)
*Sophie's Flight of Fancy (formerly Naomi's new step)
*Kate's Special Secret
*Grace's Show of Strength

Second Year

*New Girl
*Boys or Ballet?

Characters

Girls - Major

* ELLIE BROWN : Ellie the protagonist of the series, as she is recording the story with her diary. At the back of each book, there is a new diary entry (a bit like a summary to the book). Ellie lost her father in a car accident when she was very young. She was "bitten" by the ballet bug when she was three years old, which means she got obsessed on ballet. In her case, her grandma has taken her to a performance of The Nutcracker at Christmas - and she'd immediately been hooked. After this, she bought the video and drove her mother, who has MS (Multiple Sclerosis), crazy. Ellie is usually the peacekeeper, and ends up solving everyone's troubles.

* GRACE TENNANT : Grace is a close friend of Ellie's. She and Ellie met in the JAs, and became best friends. Grace started ballet because of her mother, who was a ballerina herself. As her mother did not have enough time to try out to have a spot at the Royal Ballet School because of her pregnancy and marriage to Grace's father, Grace's mother pushes her to the limit for her daughter to be the best always. Because of this, Grace was diagnosed a mild form of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder - or OPCD. After discovering this, Grace received counseling and her mother stopped pushing her so hard.

* BETHANY : Ellie's best friend in Oxford. They both go to Franklin's ballet school. Bethany auditioned for the Royal Ballet School. She didn't get in.

* LARA McCLOUD : Lara is an Irish girl who, at first, loathed Ellie. This was because at the Final Audition, Ellie crashed in Lara, which Lara presumed made her "look bad in front of the judges" she quoted to the rest of the girls. Lara has a superb singing voice and a talent at playing the piano and violin. She comes from a large family, and, at first, she wanted to leave the Royal Ballet School because she was homesick. But, later, when persuaded by Ellie, she decided to stay. Lara is the best leaper in Ellie's class and no one measures to her leaps but Isabelle (when she arrives). When angry, Lara has quite a temper and is best not to be on her bad side.

* ISABELLE ARMAND : Isabelle did not arrive to the Royal Ballet School until after the Christmas holidays. She is a pristine girl with olive skin, long glossy black hair ("Like a girl from a shampoo advertisement", Ellie thought), and perfectly manicured nails and brand-new clothes and suitcases. The girls all hated Isabelle at first, as Isabelle had a snotty attitude. But they couldn't help admire her flawless and superb skill in ballet and regular academics. In the end, they all became good friends, as Isabelle was snotty because her parents were getting a divorce and forgot her birthday. Isabelle is very sophiscated and loves coffee and everything French. She plays the piano, violin, and clarinet.

* SOPHIE CRAWFORD (formerly Naomi Crawford): Sophie is a very popular and funny and original character in the series. She has a superb singing voice, usually used to imitate pop idols. She loves to tell horoscopes and fortune telling ("Even though they weren't exactly accurate!" wrote Ellie). Sophie gets along well with everyone and was loved by everyone with her spunky attitude. She also has a talent for theatrical arts. Sophie, at the beginning of the year, received a Flexi-Band from the physio to excerise her feet for ballet. But, as she did not work on her feet, she collapsed at the Appraisals and was therefore accessed (or kicked in a slang way) out. After that, she left the School and attended a school in Manchester for performing arts after Year 7.

* KATE WALKER : Kate's surname WALKER is her birth father's last name. A few years after her parents' divorce, her mother Lim Soo May (a world-famous ballerina) married fellow world-famous ballerina Christopher Blackwell. Kate was then, therefore, child of two superstar ballerinas. Because of this fact, before she attend the Royal Ballet School and went to Redwall, the kids taunted and teased her, saying she only was good at ballet because of her parents', not her own skill. Kate kept this as a secret from all her friends until her parents came to the School and it was revealed. All the teachers knew her secret, though. Kate has a very nice personality, and is especially close friends with Lara and Isabelle. Kate loves playing Truth or Dare and loves watching soap operas. She lives with her grandmother, due to her parents' fame.

* BRYONY ANDREWS : Bryony is a very pretty girl, with long black hair and is very neat and organized. She is also a very skilled dancer and is especially close friends with Sophie. After the Half-Term Break and the news that Sophie was being accessed out, Bryony's parents also got a divorce. She bottled it up all at school so it wouldn't get into the way of her schooling. She hates people being dispensed of and just replaced, like her father replacing her mother with his new girlfriend Wendy. She was especially rude to Molly Baker at first, who replaced Sophie, as she hates thinking about Sophie being thrown out and just being replaced by Molly. Bryony wakes up every morning without a single hair on her head out of place and is usually a morning person.

* MOLLY BAKER : Molly did not arrive at the Royal Ballet School until Ellie and all her friends (besides Sophie) reached Year 8. Molly arrived because Ms. Purvis (principal of the Royal Ballet School's Lower School) offered her a trial year the the Royal Ballet School. She has only been dancing for three years, which is quite late compared to rest of Ellie and her friends, who have at least five or six years of ballet. She started ballet because her friend wanted her to, so she went to be with her friend, not really interested. She was "bitten" by the ballet bug when she was 11 years old, as she saw the ballet performance if Cinderella and was hooked. Molly is bubbly and fun, and loves Truth or Dare like Kate, and grew up in Coventry ("Yes, where Lady Godiva came from!" Molly said with a roll of her eyes).

* ALICE GRANLUND : Alice is a very nice person, who is funny and kind with a great sense of humour. Ellie, who was jealous at her at first because Alice was so close to her crush and later boyfriend and ex-boyfriend Luke Bailey, found it impossible to hate her - she couldn't even dislike Alice a little bit, as everybody liked Alice. Alice is very close friends with Luke, but, to Ellie's relief, nothing more. Alice enjoys reading horror stories, and is closer friends with Megan, Holly, Rebecca, and Scarlett, the minor girls in the series.

Girls - Minor (Personalities not mentioned)

* Scarlett Briggs
* Rebecca Todd
* Megan Paltrow
* Holly Powell
* Emma
* Julia Banks
* Jessica

Boys - Major

* MATT HASLUM : Matt is a close friend of Ellie's. They met during the JAs (along with Grace) and were partners always during character dancing, which was co-ed class that require boy-girl partners. Matt has feelings for Kate Walker, as during the School Dance in Year 8, they danced non-stop constantly together. Matt has a good sense of humour and loves to play soccer (or football). He loves to eat strawberry shortcake and has one brother. His best friend is Luke Bailey, and he and Molly Baker made the plan to get Ellie and Luke together.

* LUKE BAILEY : Ellie's former boyfriend. He has feelings for Ellie, but when Ellie broke up with him due to their downhill marks in ballet and academics and extracurriculars and the risk of being thrown out, Luke was devastated and did not speak to Ellie and after Boys or Ballet? he sent her flowers on the opening night of Ellie's performance Swan Lake, with a note with his apologies and deciding to stay as friends. Luke and Alice Granlund are close friends and he loves anything with caffeine. He loves reading horror books.

* OLIVER STAFFORD : A rude boy in the same year as Ellie. He is arrogant and stuck-up; he admires no one but himself. He spoke rude remarks to Sophie because of her "accessed out" reason and no one likes him much. Molly does a big challenge to ask him to dance with her in their Irish Dancing Class when they were given the choice to ask whomever they wanted to dance with. Oliver is hard to get along with and likes girls. He is described as a pervert.

Boys - Minor (Personalities not mentioned)

* Danny Bourne
* Justin Vafadari
* Daniel
* Joshua

Dormitory Orders

In the series, only the girls' dormitory orders are shown, so the boys are not mentioned.

Girls' Dormitory Order

Year 7

The huge Year 7 dormitory is shared by ALL the girls who earn a spot at the Royal Ballet School. There are usually 10-12 girls in this large dormitory, with a beautiful common room and its' housemother, Mrs. Hall.

Year 8

In Year 8, the girls are separate into two smaller dorms - the Billiard Room, which is big and holds 6-8 girls - and the cozy Room Off, which is smaller and cozier and holds 3-4 girls. The housemother is Mrs. Parrish. In Year 8, here is the Order Ellie and her friends had after nominating secretly the 4 girls they most would like to share a dorm with:

Billiard Room

* Bed 1 - Scarlett Briggs
* Bed 2 - Rebecca Todd
* Bed 3 - Alice Granlund
* Bed 4 - Holly Powell
* Bed 5 - Megan Paltrow
* Bed 6 - Lara McCloud
* Bed 7 - Kate Walker
* Bed 8 - Isabelle Armand

Room Off

* Bed 1 - Bryony Andrews
* Bed 2 - Grace Tennant
* Bed 3 - Ellie Brown
* Bed 4 - Molly Baker

Classes and Teachers

Here are the classes Ellie and her friends have taken and are currently taking and their teachers:

* Year 7 Ballet: Ms. Wells
* Year 8 Ballet: Ms. Black
* English: Ms. Swaisland
* Chemistry: Dr. Warburton
* Mathematics: Mr. Best
* Drama: Mr. Barrington
* French: Ms. Blanchard
* IT: Mrs. Sanderson
* Irish Dancing: Ms. Granger
* Character Dancing: Ms. O'Connor
* Geography: Mr. Whitehouse

The Books - Summaries

Ellie's Chance to Dance

The first book of the series, it depicts of Ellie moving from Chicago to Oxford. She must get used to the British way and must deal with an enemy at school, a girl named Rachel. At the same time, she and her new friend Bethany from her Oxford ballet class are working hard to audition for a place at the Royal Ballet School.

Lara's Leap of Faith

After receiving the letter that she has earned a spot at the Royal Ballet School, Ellie must pack up again to move to the prestigious world-famous ballet school and meets loads of new friends that share the love of ballet like her.