The Chalet Girls in Camp
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#1: The Chalet Girls in Camp Author: JosieLocation: London PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:12 am


Again (I know, don't faint!), we actually have the synopsis on The Chaletian! Wink
http://www.chaletian.com/books/camp.html

So how do you like the first of the 'holiday' books? Did you want to join them there on their adventures, or were the antics a little too much for you? How does Joey come across in this book? Does she overreact to Grizel calling her 'child' or is her indignantion justified? Is there any hint of her forthcoming relationship with Jack when he and Jem come to visit? Do the pranks and mishaps make you chuckle? Erm...trying to think of an insightful question....

OK, I admit I'm struggling here - I love this book, so find it hard to be objective, plus my brain's a bit fried this morning, so please excuse any burning question/point I've left out and do discuss away!! Very Happy

 


#2:  Author: ChairLocation: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:51 am


I like this book as well. I used to have a copy of it and 'The Princess of the Chalet School' but I don't know what happened to the books.

My favourite parts of the book are when Joey calls Miss Wilson an idiot and when the King takes a young Peggy on his knee and Peggy wants to know why the King doesn't wear a crown all the time. I think that is a lovely scene.

Could somebody please remind me of who the body was who was found? I had totally forgotten about that part of the book and now I can't remember who they said it was.

It is also nice to see the girls outside of school and they do have fun together. I'm sorry I can't find anything to criticise about the book but I think I need to reread it first.

 


#3:  Author: RuthYLocation: Anyone's guess PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 11:05 am


Chair wrote:
Could somebody please remind me of who the body was who was found? I had totally forgotten about that part of the book and now I can't remember who they said it was.


Chair the body was actually an artists manequin i think the word is the artist had thrown it away into the loch

I like this book quite a bit it's a while since i read it, i don't have a copy and so can't remember it exactly.

Chair wrote:
My favourite parts of the book are when Joey calls Miss Wilson an idiot and when the King takes a young Peggy on his knee and Peggy wants to know why the King doesn't wear a crown all the time.


I don't seem to remember this is that just my memory or is it cut in some editions?

I think it's funny when Jo calls Miss Wilson an idiot. It's also quite funny when the middles decide to try and do their own washing but fail! I think the bit where they fish up the manequin is very beleivable and realistic but the stuff they find in the pit (the real stuff i mean not the stuff hidden by julliet and Grizel) is a bit unbeleivable I mean how long would it have had to have been in that pit? a 100 years?overall i think this book was good but can't say much more as it's so long since i read it!

Ruth

 


#4:  Author: NellLocation: London, England PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 1:15 pm


I like this book too. I like the portrayal of the camp and always wanted to be there. I also the little mishaps like forgetting the cocoa and the visitor in the night. And the scene where the middles try to do their own (and everyone else's) washing - they were trying to be good! And when Joey calls Bill an idiot - very funny.

I liked them finding the things in the pit and didn't find it all that unbelievable after all the it had obviously been forgotten about and hidden for years.

I don't remember thinking that there was anything between Jo and Jack when I first read it and now of course everything is coloured by knowing what does happen.

I like the scene with the king at the end too and seem to remember it being in the paperback i own...

This was one of the first books I owned and therefore is also a favourite for nostalgic reasons!

 


#5:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 1:17 pm


RuthY wrote:
Chair wrote:
My favourite parts of the book are when Joey calls Miss Wilson an idiot and when the King takes a young Peggy on his knee and Peggy wants to know why the King doesn't wear a crown all the time.


I don't seem to remember this is that just my memory or is it cut in some editions?


No, I think that's all in the editions (I'm fairly sure). It's in the first chapter, but it's Rex who asks the King why he doesn't wear his crown.

 


#6:  Author: ChairLocation: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 2:34 pm


I'm sorry that I was thinking it was Peggy instead of Rix. I wonder if EBD planned on Jack and Joey getting married at this stage in the books?

 


#7:  Author: RóisínLocation: Galway, Eire PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 10:53 am


I love this book! Best comfort-read ever Very Happy
There is nothing wrong with this book, in my humble, and it's really just allround wonderful. I don't think it's possible that anyone actually dislikes it.

 


#8:  Author: BessLocation: Cambridge UK PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:17 pm


I loved this book too, although I haven't read it for a long while. It was one of the first I ever read, too. It just has such a lot happening, and at about 8yrs old I loved the grisly 'fishing up a body' mystery - quite unforgettable! The book inspired me to try 'starching' - with equally disastrous results to my dolls clothes - and I still keep a respectful distance from all insect nests thanks to hornet swarm described. I haven't ever been to boarding school (well, more than a few days!) but nearly anyone can empathise with camping stories, the good and the bad, and I loved reading about the Chalet girls in a setting I was familiar with and could envisage easily.

 


#9:  Author: MoraLocation: Lancaster PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:40 pm


I loved this book when I first read it and it's still one of my favourite re-reads.
I was absolutely horrified at what the middles did with the washing as I was brought up doing quite a lot of housework and thought I could have managed better than they did even at 10 years old. (Whether I actually could have or not is another matter.)
Not knowing much about Veta when I first read it, I thought it was odd that she was so much a focus of the first few chapters, with her father coming to visit and much being made of him being a king, then she sort of fades into the background for much of the rest of the book.
I was somewhat in awe of Joey in this book. She seemed like someone I really wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of because she yells at Bill, teases Juliet and is very superior with Grizel.
One thing that niggles in reading it now is when Jack and Jem, Bill and Miss Nalder are running away from the hornets, Jem shouts 'Throw the women in' and although Bill escapes Jack actually throws Grace Nalder into the car. Surely she could have scrambled in quite as quickly herself- she was Games mistress after all. It just struck me as an example of the great Doctor Russell at his most patronising.

 


#10:  Author: RóisínLocation: Galway, Eire PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:42 pm


True. And isn't there a bit where Maynie is moving to NZ and Jack tells Joey this but he doesn't just come right out and tell her, he waits for her to bring it up, then gives her a "queer look" or something. Psh. Jack can annoy me.

 


#11:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:41 am


Chair wrote:
I'm sorry that I was thinking it was Peggy instead of Rix. I wonder if EBD planned on Jack and Joey getting married at this stage in the books?


If I remember rightly, Jack goes to visit the camp with Jem, and Jem says to Joey something like "Haven't you got anything pretty to say to Jack?" I always got the impression that Jack liked Joey for a long time - isn't there something in The Chalet School and Jo about how he'd long since decided "what she meant to him" - before they "got together" in Exile. Even though she was still at school and a lot younger than him.

 


#12:  Author: MiaLocation: London PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 9:04 am


I think Jem was desperate to get them together! Laughing

 


#13:  Author: JoyfulLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 9:40 am


Maybe Jem was secretly responsible for all the doctor romances...
Jem the match-maker of the San! Very Happy

ETA: Now trying to send all thoughts of this as a drabble out of my head Mad

 


#14:  Author: MiaLocation: London PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 9:43 am


That's just crying out to be a drabble! Very Happy

 


#15:  Author: SquirrelLocation: St-Andrews or Dunfermline PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 10:21 am


Hmmmm, perhaps in the later books Jack took on the role as well. I cant really see Jem having much influence on the Swiss branch

 


#16:  Author: LadyGuinevereLocation: Leicester PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:13 pm


I always enjoyed all the guide stuff in the story, and was sorely disappointed when I went away to camp and it was nothing like it! It was great that Elizaveta returned for it as well, as I was quite fond of her and wished she'd stayed at the school!

I thought the stuff they found in the pit was rather convenient, but calling Miss Wilson an idot was rather amusing Smile

It's been a while since I read the book though!

 


#17:  Author: RuthYLocation: Anyone's guess PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 6:56 pm


KB wrote:
RuthY wrote:
Chair wrote:
My favourite parts of the book are when Joey calls Miss Wilson an idiot and when the King takes a young Peggy on his knee and Peggy wants to know why the King doesn't wear a crown all the time.


I don't seem to remember this is that just my memory or is it cut in some editions?


No, I think that's all in the editions (I'm fairly sure). It's in the first chapter, but it's Rex who asks the King why he doesn't wear his crown.


and

Nell wrote:
seem to remember it being in the paperback i own


Oh well it must be my memory then. I did say it was a while since I read it!


Last edited by RuthY on Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:10 pm; edited 1 time in total

 


#18:  Author: JoyfulLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:35 am


Joyful wrote:
Maybe Jem was secretly responsible for all the doctor romances...
Jem the match-maker of the San! Very Happy

ETA: Now trying to send all thoughts of this as a drabble out of my head Mad


I didn't succeed in not writing it Sad
But it's only a short one! Smile
In St Claire's Wink

 


#19:  Author: SusanLocation: Carlisle PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:29 am


This is another favourite book. I love seeing the girls on holiday and how their relationships change as opposed to when they are at school.

The scene in the pit with Miss Wilson is hilarious could only have happened to Jo.

The laundry scene is very funny too, as is dosing each other with medicine.

The body in the lake is a little far-fetched but could have happened, I suppose. I love the way Juliet and Grizel's prank backfires when they find real relics in the pit.

I don't like the Grizel and Jo child thing. Neither should have called the other this really there are other endearments that they could have used, it seems just to be to show Jo as the favourite character and Grizel as the none favourite one.

 


#20:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:07 pm


I really liked this book when I first read it. and I was really looking forward to going on a Guide camp. Then our Guide leaders took us to Saddleworth Moor (not the most cheerful of places) and it poured down all the time we were there!

It was nice to see Elisaveta back and to catch up with Wanda and the others, and it made a change to see everyone away from the school environment. I don't think they ever had another Guide camp, or did they?

 


#21:  Author: catyLocation: South America PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:57 pm


I always rememer the bit about the peasant 'making horns' at them & Cornelia being able to see the stars when she fell down the pit. I'm pretty sure they mention weekend camps again in one of Jo's term as head girl but no stories about it. (the Chalet School and Jo maybe).

 


#22:  Author: catyLocation: South America PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:07 am


Ok - Not Chalet School & Jo as this came before - maybe New House then. Can't check as books are still in parents house.

 




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