The Naughtiest Girl Series

[Moonraker]

There is a thread on this series which might be of interest to you, Sue.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3870


The threads have now been merged.

[dsr]

Well, I stayed up late last night finishing The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor, but I'm sorry to say I found it unexpectedly disappointing.

(SPOILER ALERT for anyone who hasn't read it)

....

And the happy ending... Elizabeth saving the child from drowning comes in one chapter before the end, unrelated to anything else in the story before it, like a sort of deus ex machina plot device. I was certainly hoping she'd get to be a monitor again by the end of the book, but where's the logic in what happens next? She hasn't yet shown in any way that she can handle the responsibilities of that role — she's only proved throughout the whole book that she can't, and that she wasn't really ready to be a monitor when she was elected the first time — and yet she's almost spontaneously re-elected as a special reward for rescuing the child, not because she's shown any of the growth in character that she truly needed and that Whyteleafe is supposed to foster. There's not even a vacancy for a monitor at the time, but well, let's change the rules just this once for her because she's Our Elizabeth. Doesn't seem consistent with the Whyteleafe ethos — which has been promoted so heavily throughout these books — at all!!

...

Look on the bright side (OK, 5 years later, but it's an interesting post) - the "miraculous rescue out of nothing that saves the heroine's reputation" was only used once (so far as I know) by Enid Blyton. (The June and Amanda thing in Malory Towers was rather more realistic and played down.) Christine Chaundler used it in every book! If there wasn't a life saved by a plucky schoolgirl, then it wasn't Chaundler's name on the cover. Or Dorothea Moore - her "The Only Day Girl" includes one rescue from drowning and two separate rescues from fire. That sort of thing has never bothered me, in fact I enjoy the daring rescue episodes, but I can see it could grate!

As for the monitor issue, perhaps there was an expectation that the first year monitor wasn't going to be much use? I know as a first year in a room of older children, I would be dumb as a post - how many children that age would dare to say or do anything at all? Elizabeth made a mess of her monitorship, but at least she tried. Marks for effort.

[Courtenay]

Look on the bright side (OK, 5 years later, but it's an interesting post) - the "miraculous rescue out of nothing that saves the heroine's reputation" was only used once (so far as I know) by Enid Blyton. (The June and Amanda thing in Malory Towers was rather more realistic and played down.) Christine Chaundler used it in every book! If there wasn't a life saved by a plucky schoolgirl, then it wasn't Chaundler's name on the cover. Or Dorothea Moore - her "The Only Day Girl" includes one rescue from drowning and two separate rescues from fire. That sort of thing has never bothered me, in fact I enjoy the daring rescue episodes, but I can see it could grate!

I guess it grated precisely because that's such an unusual cop-out for Enid, as you say, and most of what had happened in the Naughtiest Girl series, up to that point, was a lot more realistic and believable. If, by the end of the third book, we'd already had several daring rescues and other such hyper-dramatic episodes, I wouldn't even have raised an eyebrow at that ending! (I also probably wouldn't have bothered to continue reading to the end of the series. )

As for the monitor issue, perhaps there was an expectation that the first year monitor wasn't going to be much use? I know as a first year in a room of older children, I would be dumb as a post - how many children that age would dare to say or do anything at all? Elizabeth made a mess of her monitorship, but at least she tried. Marks for effort.

Good point — I thought it was a little unrealistic in the first place, having her become a monitor in her first year. I was surprised the three books weren't spread over a longer period of time so that we could get to see Elizabeth grow up a bit more as the series went on. As it is, it was as if she was promoted to a position of responsibility that she really wasn't ready for, so she predictably made a hash of it and lost her monitorship, but was it really fair for her to have it in the first place? That, though, makes it even more absurd that she's promoted back to being a monitor just on the strength of her saving a child's life, not on her showing a deeper level of maturity...

[Irene Malory Towers]

I am afraid that I much prefer Malory Towers and St Clare's to the Naughtiest Girl Series. I find the whole idea of the school council run by kids very unrealistic, far to prone to the popular ones being on it and they are not necessarily the right ones to have power, and the system of the wrong doings being aired publicly on the council humiliating and belittling. My other gripe is about the pocket money being shared, it is a fact in this world that people do not have the same amount of money to spend - and we have to accept that and live with it. It takes away the incentive to work and where they do try and level it out, eg communist societies - it goes badly wrong. And finally I never took to Elizabeth, whereas I really like Darrell. Having said all that, lots of people love the series and the books make for a pleasant read; unlike the dreadful and tragic news at the moment. Out of the 4 books in that series, the first one is by far the best with the interesting concepts of self rule and Elizabeth changing from horrible and spoilt to nice and generous.

[Debbie]

I agree with Irene.

The books always felt a little uncomfortable to me.
I agree too about the pocket money:
Was it fair to take a child's birthday money for example? What about the children who had birthdays in the holidays? Surely as a child there you'd say "tell uncle not to send money to school, either a present or sent the money home."
Then having to ask if you needed more money, fair enough when it was things like for the garden, but for personal things?
And I think most boarding schools would have as part of the fees a same amount of money that would be dished out to each child weekly. I remember my cousins saying that they were given £1 for each year. So in the first year (now year 7) they got £1 a week, which was tight considering what they needed to buy for school. But in year 5 (now year 11) they got £5 which was more than they needed. But the whole year got the same.

The council (as does happen with school council's nowadays) would be a popularity group. So great risk of the "in crowd" choosing what they wanted. It was clear that was why Elizabeth was appointed-she was popular rather than they thought she'd make a great monitor.
At my dc's school they used to vote on a house leader from year 4. They had to prepare a speech and do a poster. The years 3 and 4 voted. I predicted every winner and nearly every second without seeing the posters or hearing the speeches (and it wasn't uncommon for some of the winning speeches to go "well, I forgot to do the poster, and please vote for me") . Reason was the school was year 3-6, so the year 3s were new in, mostly from 2 schools with a smattering of other schools. So if you had one child from school A, two from school B, school A would win, because they'd be better known. If you had two from school A, none from school B, you then looked at popularity/how well known they'd have been.
It was pretty dispiriting for the children for whom being on school council/house captain would have benefited most because they'd never get voted in however good they'd have been at the job.

[Courtenay]

I enjoyed the first two books for Elizabeth's character development and just for the unusualness of the school, but I totally agree it would be unlikely to work in real life — though I'm aware there was (maybe still is?) a real school that Enid loosely based Whyteleafe on. I was glad I always went to schools where the school captains / house captains didn't have very much importance overall. I can't even remember who they were in my final year of high school, when they would have been from my year level! And as they weren't boarding schools (which are almost unknown in Australia now, although there were still a handful around when I was at school), there was no issue of pocket money.

School stories don't interest me very much overall, mind you — I only read the Naughtiest Girl books because I got hold of the first three in lovely old hardcover editions at a good price and was intrigued by the "different" nature of the school and, as I said, the main character being a rebel with some learning and growing to do. I actually prefer stories with a bit of magic and fantasy (like the Faraway Tree), or at least with exciting adventures that wouldn't be likely to happen to children in real life!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I don't think the pooling of all money would work in practice either. I expect most families would simply send their children to school with no more than the standard amount of pocket money and, as others have said, post off items like watches and stationery for their birthdays.

However, I quite like the idea of children having a set amount of money to spend each week (with older pupils receiving more than younger ones, as was the case with Debbie's cousins). After all, the notion of being given more for jobs involving greater skill, greater knowledge, greater responsibility, greater danger or more hours doesn't apply to children in a school setting. Receiving a certain amount of pocket money (perhaps differing a little according to age) is what generally happens in families and I think Whyteleafe is keen to foster a strong feeling of family and community.

[Nair Snehalatha]

All school series are very good-- in the naughtiest girl series, apart from Elizabeth, there are generous hearted people like John Terry, William and Rita, the head boy and girl, and others like Rchard( I misremember his surname) -- who played music with Elizabeth. It's true Elizabeth messed up things when she was a monitor- and was asked to step down-- but later she deserved to get back her post as monitor-- She helped.Julian a lot too like a friend in need

[Irene Malory Towers]

There are some good characters but if you discount the fourth book which is so short and threadbare there are only 3 books in the series which is not enough for really good character development like there is in Malory Towers. I wonder whether it was aimed at younger readers as certainly the style seems younger. I find the lessons too easily learnt and incidents overly dramatic. Whereas in contrast I still get moved by some of the episodes in Malory Towers like the play in the 5th, June nearly getting expelled (also in the 5th) and Gwendoline hearing about her father's illness in the 6th. The writing shows depth, maturity and subtlety. I also feel that the main group of characters in Malory Towers (Darrell, Sally, Gwendoline, Alice, and to a lesser extent Irene and Belinda, Bill and Clarissa) are more fully fleshed out. I rate the 5th book of Malory Towers one of Enid Blyton's best - easily top 5 for me. Makes me want to read it now !

[Anita Bensoussane]

I agree that the Naughtiest Girl series may have been aimed at a slightly younger readership as we don't go beyond the first form (in Enid Blyton's originals, anyway!) However, that doesn't prevent the books dealing with deep, protracted and poignant issues, e.g. the situation concerning Joan Townsend and her family in The Naughtiest Girl in the School, together with Elizabeth's personal anguish at seemingly having made things worse for Joan - not to mention Elizabeth's ongoing wrestle with herself which runs through the whole book. Joan's story moves me greatly, as does Julian's in The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor, and I also feel for Elizabeth in some of the predicaments she gets herself into.

[black labrador]

I'm surprised there are so few Naughtiest Girl books compared to St Clare's/Malory Towers. Does anyone know if they were less popular during Enid's lifetime?

[Irene Malory Towers]

I might reread the Naughtiest Girl series again ! to see if I am missing something - or perhaps overanalysing or unfairly comparing it to Malory Towers. I wonder also whether different things appeal at different ages. When I was younger I enjoyed both St Clare's and Malory Towers equally but now I much prefer Malory Towers. But I never really took to the Naughtiest Girl series. Time to give it another go methinks.

[Nair Snehalatha]

Dont know why many dont rate Naughtiest.Girl among the top books-- Perhaps.Enid Blyton did not find time.or.the.good health.needed.to write a few more sequels to Naughtiest girl series

[Barnard]

The Malory Towers series was far superior to the Naughtiest Girl series. The characters were far better written, even people such as the unlikeable snob, Gwen.

[MARKTAYLORUK]

I wrote to the head of Summerhill and she said she'd never read the series. My view on the pocket money thing is that I.am.not a socialist let alone a Communist so....
I found William.a pompous young fogey and Julian's experience worthy of the nastiest Victorian novels. At the age of about eleven, couldn't he just have been left to.enjoy life?