REVIEW: Challenge to Caroline
Challenge to Caroline: Pauline M. James Latimer House, 1953 approx.
Caroline is not the focus of this book to the exclusion of all other characters, which starts with new girl Di Raynor arriving at St Jessica’s, known as Jecky’s to its girls. She is to be in dormitory 11 with lively but kind Rosamund, who has been at the school for a year and the even more established Nancy and Caroline. The latter is Junior Captain - there is no middle school and the Junior Captain is responsible for all the girls in the Upper Fourth and below. The quartette are surprised when a fifth girl, Belinda, who makes a dramatic impression, is put in with them.
Forceful Caroline has been newly appointed Junior Captain and is determined to get the lower school in order, after a dreamer let things slide over the last term. She assumes her dorm-mates will back her up, and they do, but not mindlessly, but she also assumes the worst of classmate Jean, who likes to have fun in her own way. So too does Mollie of the Lower Fourth, and Mollie is dismayed that her sister Jacynth, who is sensitive and quite a lot unlike Mollie, is to be a prefect. Indeed, she seems determined to flout Jacynth’s authority, and another prefect, Sybil, seems always to witness it happening, which is another headache for Jecky’s headgirl, Sylvia, to deal with, for Sybil is less than tactful.
But Miss Anstey, the wise headmistress, known affectionately as ‘H.M.’ by the girls, has put the various people in authority for a reason. Although bounds are broken and more than order marks must be meted out, it’s a turning point of a term - the five girls of Dormitory 11 become a Gang, with Rosamund and Diana chumming up for life; Caroline learns that she isn’t always right; and the more rebellious girls learn the error of their ways.
This was a much better story than I expected. I had a feeling I’d read something else by the writer, and I’ve subsequently confirmed that I have - The Island Mystery - but that's not the book that I thought it was. This story felt as if it’s part of a series, with references to Rosamund’s first year at St Jecky’s, and 'The Island Mystery' turns out to be a sequel that features Di and Rose after they’ve left school proving that my instinct was right, although I liked that crowded story much less than I liked this, which is a more straightforward school story. I liked that it moves from Dormitory 11 to the room where prep is done to the headgirl’s study to the headmistress’s head. It’s interested in character and growth, which is where 'The Island Mystery' floundered for me. Although the recalcitrants’ attack any of their peers who point out that what they’re planning to do is wrong is that they’re being prigs, there is a Christian theme, even if it isn’t quite as explicit as it would be in the Chalet School books. In fact, I was reminded a little more of the Abbey girls books (as I was by the sequel), in the story of the school being built near an old convent and named after a brave nun. The ‘secret garden’ that only the gang know about, which was created by the nuns for the older sisters, becomes a plot point and reminds me of the Abbey treasures Jen and co kept finding.
I noted that one of the girls was reading Needham’s ‘The Black Riders’ - has any survey been made of the books that schoolgirls read in these types of books?
This entry was originally posted at http://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/127822.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.
Caroline is not the focus of this book to the exclusion of all other characters, which starts with new girl Di Raynor arriving at St Jessica’s, known as Jecky’s to its girls. She is to be in dormitory 11 with lively but kind Rosamund, who has been at the school for a year and the even more established Nancy and Caroline. The latter is Junior Captain - there is no middle school and the Junior Captain is responsible for all the girls in the Upper Fourth and below. The quartette are surprised when a fifth girl, Belinda, who makes a dramatic impression, is put in with them.
Forceful Caroline has been newly appointed Junior Captain and is determined to get the lower school in order, after a dreamer let things slide over the last term. She assumes her dorm-mates will back her up, and they do, but not mindlessly, but she also assumes the worst of classmate Jean, who likes to have fun in her own way. So too does Mollie of the Lower Fourth, and Mollie is dismayed that her sister Jacynth, who is sensitive and quite a lot unlike Mollie, is to be a prefect. Indeed, she seems determined to flout Jacynth’s authority, and another prefect, Sybil, seems always to witness it happening, which is another headache for Jecky’s headgirl, Sylvia, to deal with, for Sybil is less than tactful.
But Miss Anstey, the wise headmistress, known affectionately as ‘H.M.’ by the girls, has put the various people in authority for a reason. Although bounds are broken and more than order marks must be meted out, it’s a turning point of a term - the five girls of Dormitory 11 become a Gang, with Rosamund and Diana chumming up for life; Caroline learns that she isn’t always right; and the more rebellious girls learn the error of their ways.
This was a much better story than I expected. I had a feeling I’d read something else by the writer, and I’ve subsequently confirmed that I have - The Island Mystery - but that's not the book that I thought it was. This story felt as if it’s part of a series, with references to Rosamund’s first year at St Jecky’s, and 'The Island Mystery' turns out to be a sequel that features Di and Rose after they’ve left school proving that my instinct was right, although I liked that crowded story much less than I liked this, which is a more straightforward school story. I liked that it moves from Dormitory 11 to the room where prep is done to the headgirl’s study to the headmistress’s head. It’s interested in character and growth, which is where 'The Island Mystery' floundered for me. Although the recalcitrants’ attack any of their peers who point out that what they’re planning to do is wrong is that they’re being prigs, there is a Christian theme, even if it isn’t quite as explicit as it would be in the Chalet School books. In fact, I was reminded a little more of the Abbey girls books (as I was by the sequel), in the story of the school being built near an old convent and named after a brave nun. The ‘secret garden’ that only the gang know about, which was created by the nuns for the older sisters, becomes a plot point and reminds me of the Abbey treasures Jen and co kept finding.
I noted that one of the girls was reading Needham’s ‘The Black Riders’ - has any survey been made of the books that schoolgirls read in these types of books?
This entry was originally posted at http://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/127822.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.