The Abbey Girls Go Back To School by Elsie J. Oxenham
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I keep trying with EJO and she keeps testing me and yet, I keep coming back. Why I cannot quit this series, I do not know. I keep putting them all in a bag to go to the charity shop and then, regular as clockwork, they come back and sit on the shelves with the air of books that know they’re never going anywhere. The sticking power of them. The sheer, stubborn, sticking power. And then I keep adding to them! I keep buying more!
Honestly, if only I knew what was going on here, I tell you.
So! The Abbey Girls Go Back To School isn’t really anything to do with their school. They’re all off to a country dancing school to dance and then dance some more and then a little bit more, and when they’re done dancing, they’re going to give EVERYONE a nickname and never use their real names and then they’re going to swoon over each other a bit and then Joy’s going to be hideous and there will be some. more. dance. And more swooning. And more nicknames. And it’s all kind of fabulously fabulous and yet immensely ridiculous all at the same time, until the last few pages which STEP IT UP in suitably dramatic and eye-catching style.
Basically, this book. It’s a lot. It’s interminably interminable until suddenly it’s mad dramatic and yet, I love it. God knows why, but I do.
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Daisy May Johnson 
Love this! I thought it was just me that didn’t ‘get’ the Abbey books… I thought I was missing something key and I was the only one reading battered copies from charity shops, then baffled, I eventually donate them back to create some shelf space. Weeks, months or even years later I spot one somewhere and am compelled to buy. And so the cycle continues! I keep hoping what whatever is causing my compulsion will finally reveal itself to me if I just keep trying another one. And another one…
Oh it’s not just me! Hurrah! 🙂 (If you ever find out how EJO does it, do tell me!!).
I will but I fear it’s one of those secrets I may never unlock! Will just have to keep trying!
Absolutely loving How To Be Brave – so funny, so poignant, so clever! Congratulations!
aah, thank you so much! ❤
I like this one because Karen and Tazy from the Swiss books are in it. Tazy can be a bit annoying but I love Karen. The Swiss books are better than the main Abbey books, IMO! The nicknames do my head in, though. I think Jen is Jen, Janet, Jenny Wren and Brownie by this point!
You know what, I don’t think I’ve read any of the EJO swiss books!