2008-04-11 Terrible

I loved these books as a kid. I always wanted to go to boarding school. I always wondered why Enid Blyton never wrote a book about the sixth form and how the twins did as co-head girls. Now I know. The episodes that made the other books funny really aren't funny in young ladies. And Pamela Cox must have been in a rush to get this book written. So many things are lifted straight from earlier books. When some younger girls planned a midnight feast and found the disliked girl of the form planned to spoil it, one of the twins suggested the exact solution used earlier. (Hold the feast a night earlier.) As head girls, shouldn't they be trying to discourage this?

When a new student in the sixth form decided she hated St. Clare's and wanted to leave, she pulled the old "do poorly and get expelled" card. I'm not terribly familiar with the British schooling system then or now (I'm American) but I'm guessing these girls are around 17 years old and way too old for a stunt like that. A 17 year old should be able to stick out anything for a year.

I could have told them the Agony Aunties were a mistake. I can't believe Miss Roberts would suggest something like that. Not only is counseling not the other students' job, but she knows better than anyone that every class has at least one blabbermouth. Some carefully selected peer mentors would have been a better idea. The best idea would have been to hire another adult.

The vanishing twin act was ridiculous as well. They started that on the train. If only one checked in with Miss Roberts, she would have wondered about the other one and called home. If they both checked in, but took turns showing up in class, the teacher would have noted that in the attendance record.

And what was with the fishing-line trick on Mam'zelle? Even if she couldn't see the fishing line strung across the classroom, most teachers walk around and I kept thinking she was going to walk into it. Now that might have been funny! But as I said earlier, these girls are too old for things like that. And no one comes up with pranks as clever as Mrs. Blyton did. I wonder what she was like as a student?

I have to agree with another reviewer on the modernizing. For years the girls have gone to the san. or sanitarium and now they're going to the sickbay. That annoyed me more than the netball instead of lacrosse.
Cox's previous two books weren't too bad. She should have stopped th
ere.