A Problem for the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I rather love A Problem for the Chalet School though I have the suspicion that I’m not meant to. I suspect I’m meant to be Team Chalet and Team Good Egg throughout but I can’t help sort of loving the bumptious joy that is Joan Baker.
You know the routine in the series at this point now, right? New girl joins school, new girl settles in, we go and have a meal with the random woman who lives next door, Mary-Lou sorts stuff out, jollity, jollity, highjinks, end of term.
This time round, Brent-Dyer sticks with the format but then goes a little bit crazy and throws in some social commentary and a bit of class warfare. Which is amazing, really, but if Brent-Dyer ever had the handle on social analysis, she had it very early on in books like Exile and around that era, and now her handle isn’t really a handle any more. It is, should I prolong the life of this metaphor to painful proportions, more of a spatula than a handle and it is a spatula made of spaghetti.
Oh, I’m being unfair because even in this knotty ‘trying to keep up with the times and finding that we don’t really like what the times are becoming’ book, Brent-Dyer works her old magic and throws a sudden piece of fiery prose into the works: “when you come to the root of matters, it’s you – you – YOU that matters all the time – what you are!” and suddenly I’m in love again with this batty series of bonkers books.
Also Jack Maynard gets to talk to people! By himself! For this, this book gets an extra star.
Daisy May Johnson 
I am intrigued by EBD’s decision to let Jack have a scene, because she didn’t have to. There’s someone nebulous plot about Joey not being at home because random person is ill, but it doesn’t link to anything else, there’s no reason to send Joey away.
So when OOAO Mary Lou comes over, it’s Jack (basically being Joey without a sing song voice) suddenly centre stage. And it’s great! But why would she bump her heroine out of her usual mid-book advice scene?
Oh, now you’ve got me thinking! (Team Jack, all the way, I love him so…)