REVIEW: Schoolgirl Reporter
Schoolgirl Reporter: Constance M. White, Hutchinson, this edition 1969
I rated the last book by White that I read, The Ballet School Mystery and made a mental note to look out for more books by her, but I didn’t like this story at all. I kept willingly putting it down and reluctantly picking it up again. Most authors, certainly of children’s stories, need likeable protagonists, even if they do need a little reforming. Apparently, White thought her heroine needed rewards for behaviour that made me rather dislike her.
Laurel Chester is a fourth former, or course, at Sherborne School, which has just moved to a larger property that neighbours a shabbier, empty house. Having accidentally gone there on the first day of term, its mystery casts a spell over Laurel, proprietor of the ‘Chester nose’ like her reporter father and cub reporter elder sister Cicely. If Laurel had just been driven by curiosity, that would be one thing, but she likes to be star of the show, rules don’t matter that much to her if they get in the way of what she wants and she’ll strong-arm her more timid best friend in service of that, too.
There’s a little too much going on in the book. Laurel can’t wait to be a journalist, and so comes up with the idea of The Fourth Form Magazine, as the prefects won’t let the lower school contribute to the school magazine. The Schoolgirl Reporter is the name of a gossip page Laurel invents, which doesn’t actually feature that much in the story. As the magazine was her idea, Laurel hopes and expects to be Editress, which means trouble with the other aspiring writer in the form, Vivian, although Laurel has more writerly discernment.
The idea of Laurel as a schoolgirl reporter, a young Sally Baxter or a boarding school version of TV’s Press Gang, never really comes to much. The closest involvement the mystery of the house next door has to the magazine is that an old man Laurel sees hanging around there (when she is trespassing when she should be practicing the violin) inspires a serial story that she writes for the mag.
The mystery is rambly and rather obvious, or rather mysteries. Laurel is encouraged by her sister and father, overrides timid Frieda, gets snippy when her behaviour inspires a hero-worshipping junior to emulate her, and discovers the truth eventually, getting only a slap on the wrist for wholesale breaking of rules basically because she’s nosy and looking for thrills.
Does that make me sound like Deborah, the dull prefect who is out for sparkling Laurel? I don’t care.
White owes a debt to Louisa M. Alcott by way of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer in this book. ‘Oho’ I thought when I read, ‘The two were a complete contrast in appearance; Laurel, with her dark, boyish head and vivid colouring, and Frieda, whose pale apple-blossom complexion was accompanied by short curling hair so fair as to be almost white.’ There are differences, of course: this Frieda has short hair and never says ‘no’ with any firmness, although it would have done both girls a world of good had she done so, but Laurel aspires to write like Alcott. If she’d shown a little more interest in other writers like, say, the Brontës, one of the mysteries wouldn’t have been such a headache for her.
Furthermore, there is an episode that was influenced by Alcott’s Little Women involving a frozen pond and a little girl, whom Laurel rescues. Jill Pavett, the head girl’s baby sister, and in no way as shining a beacon of virtue, is ever so grateful and becomes Laurel’s shadow. This annoys Laurel, especially as it cramps her secret mystery-solving activities. I was, frankly, surprised that head girl Alison asked Laurel to keep an eye out for spoiled Jill and warn her away from people. But then, Laurel is Junior Hockey Captain (the only time she’s on the field, she’s reprimanded for day dreaming).
I’d rather have read a book about jolly Bridget O’Malley, who is a red-headed Oirish girl (leprechauns and the Blarney Stone get a mention) and a walking cliché, or a book about a proper schoolgirl reporter, who got some comeuppance for her faults and earned her rewards. Stacie Benson, I feel, would have rejected this story.
This entry was originally posted at http://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/119703.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.
I rated the last book by White that I read, The Ballet School Mystery and made a mental note to look out for more books by her, but I didn’t like this story at all. I kept willingly putting it down and reluctantly picking it up again. Most authors, certainly of children’s stories, need likeable protagonists, even if they do need a little reforming. Apparently, White thought her heroine needed rewards for behaviour that made me rather dislike her.
Laurel Chester is a fourth former, or course, at Sherborne School, which has just moved to a larger property that neighbours a shabbier, empty house. Having accidentally gone there on the first day of term, its mystery casts a spell over Laurel, proprietor of the ‘Chester nose’ like her reporter father and cub reporter elder sister Cicely. If Laurel had just been driven by curiosity, that would be one thing, but she likes to be star of the show, rules don’t matter that much to her if they get in the way of what she wants and she’ll strong-arm her more timid best friend in service of that, too.
There’s a little too much going on in the book. Laurel can’t wait to be a journalist, and so comes up with the idea of The Fourth Form Magazine, as the prefects won’t let the lower school contribute to the school magazine. The Schoolgirl Reporter is the name of a gossip page Laurel invents, which doesn’t actually feature that much in the story. As the magazine was her idea, Laurel hopes and expects to be Editress, which means trouble with the other aspiring writer in the form, Vivian, although Laurel has more writerly discernment.
The idea of Laurel as a schoolgirl reporter, a young Sally Baxter or a boarding school version of TV’s Press Gang, never really comes to much. The closest involvement the mystery of the house next door has to the magazine is that an old man Laurel sees hanging around there (when she is trespassing when she should be practicing the violin) inspires a serial story that she writes for the mag.
The mystery is rambly and rather obvious, or rather mysteries. Laurel is encouraged by her sister and father, overrides timid Frieda, gets snippy when her behaviour inspires a hero-worshipping junior to emulate her, and discovers the truth eventually, getting only a slap on the wrist for wholesale breaking of rules basically because she’s nosy and looking for thrills.
Does that make me sound like Deborah, the dull prefect who is out for sparkling Laurel? I don’t care.
White owes a debt to Louisa M. Alcott by way of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer in this book. ‘Oho’ I thought when I read, ‘The two were a complete contrast in appearance; Laurel, with her dark, boyish head and vivid colouring, and Frieda, whose pale apple-blossom complexion was accompanied by short curling hair so fair as to be almost white.’ There are differences, of course: this Frieda has short hair and never says ‘no’ with any firmness, although it would have done both girls a world of good had she done so, but Laurel aspires to write like Alcott. If she’d shown a little more interest in other writers like, say, the Brontës, one of the mysteries wouldn’t have been such a headache for her.
Furthermore, there is an episode that was influenced by Alcott’s Little Women involving a frozen pond and a little girl, whom Laurel rescues. Jill Pavett, the head girl’s baby sister, and in no way as shining a beacon of virtue, is ever so grateful and becomes Laurel’s shadow. This annoys Laurel, especially as it cramps her secret mystery-solving activities. I was, frankly, surprised that head girl Alison asked Laurel to keep an eye out for spoiled Jill and warn her away from people. But then, Laurel is Junior Hockey Captain (the only time she’s on the field, she’s reprimanded for day dreaming).
I’d rather have read a book about jolly Bridget O’Malley, who is a red-headed Oirish girl (leprechauns and the Blarney Stone get a mention) and a walking cliché, or a book about a proper schoolgirl reporter, who got some comeuppance for her faults and earned her rewards. Stacie Benson, I feel, would have rejected this story.
This entry was originally posted at http://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/119703.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.