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spectacledbear's review
3.0
I didn't realise until reading other reviews that this book and "A Rebel at the Chalet School" were originally in one volume, but at least it explains why this book just... stops.
The opening section of this book is set in England, and introduces us to Joyce and Gillian Linton and their mother, who is newly-diagnosed with TB and has been prescribed a long sojourn at the Sonnalpe. (I have no idea how realistic the whole travelling-across-Europe-with-a-nurse storyline is - I can only imagine that it would have been extortionately expensive in the 30s and completely impossible now (if only because having ambulances, stretcher-bearers, and boats/trains available at an hour's notice seems vanishingly unlikely in this day and age).)
The Linton sisters are chalk and cheese in many ways - Gillian is kind and thoughtful, while Joyce is thoughtless and vain. Her rebelliousness is hardly squashed in this book (though I assume she will be rehabilitated in "Rebel").
Joyce, despite her inability to rise to the top in her cohort at the school, manages to be at the centre of some of the more adventurous episodes during the term (firstly the heinous sin of passing notes in class, and then the organisation of a midnight feast, for which she is punished by what seems to be the worst attack of indigestion ever experienced by anyone).
The School's scholarly offering is expanded during this book by the addition of a Domestic Economy department, where the girls learn how to do laundry, set a table, cook, and other housewifely skills. (I hardly see the point of this since most of them will almost certain marry a doctor (probably one who works at the Sonnalpe, which seems to partly function as a dating service for Chalet alumnae) and be able to afford staff for that sort of thing.)
What it probably should teach is how pregnancy works, since Jo apparently saw Madge when she was at least five (possibly six) months pregnant, and didn't notice... (and it seems her pregnancy also went unnoticed by Robin and Stacie.) This was by far the least likely thing to occur in any Chalet School book so far, which is saying something...
All that aside, it was as enjoyable as ever to spend time in the world of the Chalet School, and I have to admit I'm enjoying the fact that Jo's last year at school is being spread across several books. Despite having read almost all of the books when I was young, I remember very little of them, and it's such a pleasure to return to them now.
The opening section of this book is set in England, and introduces us to Joyce and Gillian Linton and their mother, who is newly-diagnosed with TB and has been prescribed a long sojourn at the Sonnalpe. (I have no idea how realistic the whole travelling-across-Europe-with-a-nurse storyline is - I can only imagine that it would have been extortionately expensive in the 30s and completely impossible now (if only because having ambulances, stretcher-bearers, and boats/trains available at an hour's notice seems vanishingly unlikely in this day and age).)
The Linton sisters are chalk and cheese in many ways - Gillian is kind and thoughtful, while Joyce is thoughtless and vain. Her rebelliousness is hardly squashed in this book (though I assume she will be rehabilitated in "Rebel").
Joyce, despite her inability to rise to the top in her cohort at the school, manages to be at the centre of some of the more adventurous episodes during the term (firstly the heinous sin of passing notes in class, and then the organisation of a midnight feast, for which she is punished by what seems to be the worst attack of indigestion ever experienced by anyone).
The School's scholarly offering is expanded during this book by the addition of a Domestic Economy department, where the girls learn how to do laundry, set a table, cook, and other housewifely skills. (I hardly see the point of this since most of them will almost certain marry a doctor (probably one who works at the Sonnalpe, which seems to partly function as a dating service for Chalet alumnae) and be able to afford staff for that sort of thing.)
What it probably should teach is how pregnancy works, since Jo apparently saw Madge when she was at least five (possibly six) months pregnant, and didn't notice... (and it seems her pregnancy also went unnoticed by Robin and Stacie.) This was by far the least likely thing to occur in any Chalet School book so far, which is saying something...
All that aside, it was as enjoyable as ever to spend time in the world of the Chalet School, and I have to admit I'm enjoying the fact that Jo's last year at school is being spread across several books. Despite having read almost all of the books when I was young, I remember very little of them, and it's such a pleasure to return to them now.
celiaedf12's review
3.0
Joyce and Gillian Linton move from England to attend the Chalet School in the 10th book of the series, as their ill mother must go to the sanatorium. (I read this in paperback, in which it is split into two books, this and A Rebel of the Chalet School.
Joyce is pretty and lazy, and encourages the girls into terribly evil things (like midnight feasts) with Thekla, the villian introduced in the last book.
Cooking lessons are intoduced in this book, as the staff decide they want the girls to be "homemakers" as well as cultured. So we have a few mix-ups in the kitchen, creating garlic apple pies.
When Joyce is threatened with expulsion, Joey has a heart-to-heart with her and encourages her to reform. Thekla makes this difficult, and the Linton's mother has a set back, requiring Joey to save the day.
This isn't one of my favourite books - Joey continues to go on and on about it being her last year at school and she doesn't want to grow up, and so on. And Joyce and Gillian don't particularly interest me as characters.
Joyce is pretty and lazy, and encourages the girls into terribly evil things (like midnight feasts) with Thekla, the villian introduced in the last book.
Cooking lessons are intoduced in this book, as the staff decide they want the girls to be "homemakers" as well as cultured. So we have a few mix-ups in the kitchen, creating garlic apple pies.
When Joyce is threatened with expulsion, Joey has a heart-to-heart with her and encourages her to reform. Thekla makes this difficult, and the Linton's mother has a set back, requiring Joey to save the day.
This isn't one of my favourite books - Joey continues to go on and on about it being her last year at school and she doesn't want to grow up, and so on. And Joyce and Gillian don't particularly interest me as characters.
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