Vigyázat! Cselekményleírást tartalmaz.
Rachel, Jane and Tim Winter live in London. Following a car accident, their father has been depressed and unable to work (he is a writer). The doctor says that an English winter will be very bad for him, and and his sister, the children's Aunt Cora, invites the whole family, including their „mother's help” Miss Bean ("Peaseblossom") to stay with her in California.
Even though they obviously want their father to get better, the children have mixed feelings about this. Tim is not overly concerned, even though a famous pianist has just offered to give him lessons. Tim feels that he can keep practising while he is in America, and start with the new teacher when he gets back to England. Rachel, a talented dancer who has been studying at the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training, is very upset. She has just turned twelve, and has been selected as one of six children to dance in a musical play – her first professional engagement. (The M'audition Pieces article gives… (tovább)
Rachel, Jane and Tim Winter live in London. Following a car accident, their father has been depressed and unable to work (he is a writer). The doctor says that an English winter will be very bad for him, and and his sister, the children's Aunt Cora, invites the whole family, including their „mother's help” Miss Bean ("Peaseblossom") to stay with her in California.
Even though they obviously want their father to get better, the children have mixed feelings about this. Tim is not overly concerned, even though a famous pianist has just offered to give him lessons. Tim feels that he can keep practising while he is in America, and start with the new teacher when he gets back to England. Rachel, a talented dancer who has been studying at the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training, is very upset. She has just turned twelve, and has been selected as one of six children to dance in a musical play – her first professional engagement. (The M'audition Pieces article gives details of her audition song and speech.) However, with her mother's support, she hides her disappointment from her father. Jane (the "difficult one") is appalled. Her dog, Chewing Gum, will not be able to come with them, and she initially refuses to go and leave „the only person who really and truly loves me” (The Painted Garden, 1949:34). However, eventually the doctor convinces Jane to leave Chewing Gum with him while they are away.
After an exciting journey by sea and train, the family arrives in California. Aunt Cora does not have a piano, but Tim finds one in a nearby drug store, and arranges with the owner that he can use it to practise on as long as he also plays to entertain the customers. The head of Rachel's school, Madame Fidolia, has written to her former pupil, Posy Fossil, and asked her to arrange for ballet lessons for Rachel while she is in California. Rachel meets Posy, her sister Pauline, and also Sylvia and Nana (all characters familiar to readers of Ballet Shoes).
Jane is walking along the beach when she sees a dog eating a „very dead fish”. Jane is angry that the dog's owner will let him wander around alone, and eat bad fish that will make him sick. She has seen the house the dog comes from, so she takes him back and tells the owner that „some people don't deserve to have dogs” (The Painted Garden, 1949:123). The owner (Mr Bryan J. Browne) turns out to be a film director. He is just about to start on a film of The Secret Garden, but unfortunately the child actress who was to play Mary has fallen ill. Having seen Jane's disagreeable and haughty attitude as she talked to him about caring for his dog, he feels she would be perfect for the part. Jane is delighted – for the first time she will be the most important member of the family, rather than simply the „untalented one”. However, film work proves to be far more difficult than she had imagined.
