Summer Term at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So, I need to tell you about somebody I met twenty years ago. I was eleven, but that’s not a problem. I think she’d be the perfect guardian for my child-that-I-have-for-the-purposes-of-making-this-point and so I think I’m going to put it in my will that she’ll look after my child-that-I-have-for-the-purposes-of-making-this-point. I think that sounds like an excellent plan.
Oh heavens, what a ridiculous plan, and yet at this point in the series I accept it for what it is and how perfect it is in the special, special Chalet World we are all privileged to be a part of.
We all know that by this point, the series was tired. And it is, it is so tired, but it’s sort of spectacular in the same breath. Train accidents. Bee swarming shenanigans. Broken feet. Pit-crater thingies. Basically Erica’s been sent to school in some sort of prototype of the Hunger Games, and if she survives her first term then hey, ho, here’s your graduation certificate, girl done good.
There are some lovely moments even amidst all of the madness, and even though I really shouldn’t, I have a soft spot for Joey and Jack in this series. Jack more than Joey, I think, simply for his genuine good chap-ness during the whole Marie-Claire plot.
(And oh, how I love that whole Marie-Claire plot, even though I really shouldn’t).
Essentially I have a lot of love for this book. Even though it alternates between torturous and fantastical and viciously hammy, I love it. Even though I really shouldn’t.
Now where’s my will?
Daisy May Johnson 