In the 1998 movie You’ve Got Mail, Kathleen Kelly shares her love for the “Shoe books” by Noel Streatfeild. Her favorite, she says, is Ballet Shoes — and since we are *big* fans of Kathleen Kelly around here, it’s time to tackle it!

On Episode 124, Alli and her guest Jenny Bayliss dive into the world of the Fossil family — Pauline, Petrova, Posy, and their caretakers Garnie and Nana. They talk about the pressures the sisters feel to support their family, the way they embrace found family, and the various forms of privilege they straddle. They discuss the way misogyny presents itself in Ballet Shoes and the hints of progressivism they find in an otherwise fairly classic book.

Jenny Bayliss is the author of The Twelve Dates of Christmas. Follow her on Instagram (@jennibayliss) and Twitter (@BaylissJenni).

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