REVIEW: The New Girls of Netherby
The New Girls of Netherby: Judith Carr. Blackie.
Three of the many new girls at Netherby Hall are put into 4B. They are Sally Nicol, Gloria Page and Wendy Willoughby. The heroine is Sally, who is a scholarship girl of sorts, having come to the attention of her benefactress, Miss Cordelia, after winning a writing competition, but the other two girls come to the foreground in turn.
Sally’s first impression of Netherby is not welcoming, but the head prefect of Brontë house, Brenda Napier, introduces her to Rikky O’Neill and gang. As Sally stands up well to their schoolgirl nonsense (there’s so much schoolgirl nonsense in this book, characters take a while to get to the point and are rarely serious) they welcome her into their fold.
On Sally’s last evening at home, her mother dropped the news that she was going to remarry. Sally had not met Captain Page. Oh, and also he had a daughter Sally’s age who would be starting at Netherby. Cope with that as well as starting boarding school, child. Honestly, if I’d been a child reading girls own who’d lost a parent back in the day, I’d have been terrified of being put in the same situation. I hope this was more of a plot device than a thing that adults did. Furthermore, a few weeks into term, the couple are married and only tell their offspring after the event!
Gloria arrives after the term has started, has never been to any kind of school before and has clearly been spoiled by both sets of grandparents. She strongly dislikes school rules, and her first few days are difficult ones, with tantrums and alarums. They’re especially tough for Sally, who, being more settled in, feels responsible for Gloria - too much so, according to the other girls.
Wendy is an orphan from Ireland, who harbours dreams of becoming a writer, as Sally does, although the latter tends towards fiction and Wendy towards reporting. Wendy comes into her own only when the headmistress, Miss Dagenham, sets a challenge for the new girls to make an impression. The girls of 4B have undoubtedly made an impression on their strict form mistress, Miss Yorke, and on the unwise head girl Ingrid Nielsen.
In some ways, Wendy is a background character. Despite also being Irish, she is upstaged on the Oirish front by real Irish Schoolgirl Rikky (she understandably prefers the nickname, given that her birth name is Richarda) who is the wickedest girl in the school, an imp and a nuisance etc, etc.
You can certainly play school story bingo with this book (Gloria is half-Italian). I wish it had had a little more seriousness of intent, sometimes - the remarriage works out fine and doesn’t traumatise the girls, school life improves Gloria, and Sally and Wendy get to shine.
This entry was originally posted at https://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/159857.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.
Three of the many new girls at Netherby Hall are put into 4B. They are Sally Nicol, Gloria Page and Wendy Willoughby. The heroine is Sally, who is a scholarship girl of sorts, having come to the attention of her benefactress, Miss Cordelia, after winning a writing competition, but the other two girls come to the foreground in turn.
Sally’s first impression of Netherby is not welcoming, but the head prefect of Brontë house, Brenda Napier, introduces her to Rikky O’Neill and gang. As Sally stands up well to their schoolgirl nonsense (there’s so much schoolgirl nonsense in this book, characters take a while to get to the point and are rarely serious) they welcome her into their fold.
On Sally’s last evening at home, her mother dropped the news that she was going to remarry. Sally had not met Captain Page. Oh, and also he had a daughter Sally’s age who would be starting at Netherby. Cope with that as well as starting boarding school, child. Honestly, if I’d been a child reading girls own who’d lost a parent back in the day, I’d have been terrified of being put in the same situation. I hope this was more of a plot device than a thing that adults did. Furthermore, a few weeks into term, the couple are married and only tell their offspring after the event!
Gloria arrives after the term has started, has never been to any kind of school before and has clearly been spoiled by both sets of grandparents. She strongly dislikes school rules, and her first few days are difficult ones, with tantrums and alarums. They’re especially tough for Sally, who, being more settled in, feels responsible for Gloria - too much so, according to the other girls.
Wendy is an orphan from Ireland, who harbours dreams of becoming a writer, as Sally does, although the latter tends towards fiction and Wendy towards reporting. Wendy comes into her own only when the headmistress, Miss Dagenham, sets a challenge for the new girls to make an impression. The girls of 4B have undoubtedly made an impression on their strict form mistress, Miss Yorke, and on the unwise head girl Ingrid Nielsen.
In some ways, Wendy is a background character. Despite also being Irish, she is upstaged on the Oirish front by real Irish Schoolgirl Rikky (she understandably prefers the nickname, given that her birth name is Richarda) who is the wickedest girl in the school, an imp and a nuisance etc, etc.
You can certainly play school story bingo with this book (Gloria is half-Italian). I wish it had had a little more seriousness of intent, sometimes - the remarriage works out fine and doesn’t traumatise the girls, school life improves Gloria, and Sally and Wendy get to shine.
This entry was originally posted at https://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/159857.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.