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#1: A Leader in the Chalet School Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:44 am
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Yes, this is the book that introduces Jack Lambert, as well as several daughters of old girls. Jack arrives, and promptly makes an impression, with a feud with Margaret Twiss, a series of dubious pranks (cobblers wax on Margaret's chair, water in Gwen Parry's boots and Miss Burnett's bubble bath) and is blamed for one she didn't commit (the snake in Miss Bertram's drawer). Len is shown as a rising leader, and takes young Jack under her wing. In other areas, Vb is frustrating the staff with their poor standard of work and lack of application, and Miss Annersley threatens to leave the whole form back a year if they don't improve.

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What do you think of Jack in her first appearance? Is she a believable or sympathetic character? How about her sister Anne, the colourless one.

Do you think Miss Annersley's threat to Vb is a good tactic?

How does Len appear in this book - a realistic girl, a paragon of virtue, or over burdened with responsiblity.

#2: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 9:05 am
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Given what a bossy madam Len can be, I quite enjoy seeing her being driven mad by Jack Laughing

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Jack is an absolute pain, but I do think that she's a realistic figure. She orders the rest of her gang about far more than even Mary-Lou ever does, but there were plenty of girls at our school who were like that! And I like the way that, in later books, she starts to "reform"/grow up without losing her individuality - the idea of girls being shown as being interested in messing around with cars etc was still quite usual when Neighbours did it in the 1980s Laughing

, never mind in the 1960s!

I've never really thought much about Anne Lambert: she never seems to feature much.

I sometimes wonder what the parents thought of people being kept down a year. People like Emerence leave without ever even making it to the VIth form, after everything their parents'd paid for their education. Or maybe they just assumed that the school knew what was best. And how did people who were "put up" a form mid-year manage with missing part of the syllabus?! I can't believe that the whole year would've been left behind, but I bet Miss A sounded as if she meant it!

#3: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 6:54 am
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Although I dislike the later Jack intensely, she comes across in this books as annoying but realistic - she's a strong willed, intelligent kid whose primary faults are a tendency to act without thinking, poor emotional self control and a tendency to think in black and white.

I've met kids like that at about that age - generally very bright, strong willed, a bit unusual in someway (like Jack's liking for machinery), and with tendencies to be a leader. In some ways, they're people who have to grow into their personality, as it's too big and original to fit into the body and expected behaviour of a ten or eleven year old. It's also been my observation that these kids are hard to raise - the parents and teachers need to nurture and support their abilities, while directing them into positive outlets (unlike Jack's leader/bully personality), teach them to think of other people who aren't as forward as they are, and reining them in when they behave inapproprately This is made difficult by the combination of stubborness, intelligence, and a fairly fireproof personality - unlike a shy, quiet, sensitive type the reining in may have to be less than subtle, and repeated.

Actually Mary-Lou has some of those same traits, and both she and Jack are similar in that they are realistic if sometimes annoying junior middles who become bossy autocrats after a few years, even if their approaches are different. I think the school allowed them to get away with too much, particularly in a boarding school environment where they don't go home away from their peer group in the evenings and weekends.

I've never been a fan of group punishments in school - even at age 8 I knew there was something wrong with punishing the guilty along with the innocent, so I think her threat is unfair. She's basically saying that the staff can't motivate the class, so she'll threaten the good students wiht being left down if they don't peer pressure the bad ones into working.

#4: Author: Lisa A., Location: North Yorkshire

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:51 pm
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I thought Miss Annersley was a bit more astute that that - in New Mistress when Kathie has punished her whole class for misbehaviour, Miss A asks her to remit her punishment to a group of girls who had nothing to do with the uproar, and says that it's "always well to avoid any appearance of injustice." Maybe she was just having a bad day in Leader, or maybe they really were all bad enough to send back!

#5: A leader in the chalet school Author: Fiona Mc, Location: Bendigo, Australia

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:06 am
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In reply to the above posts. MissAnnersley doesn't say she'll leave the whole form down only those who don't improve. Len confronts her on just that on Margot's behalf stating how unfair it was and Miss Annersley said Margot wasn't listening cos only those who fail to improve get left down. Quite frankly I thought it was a fair enough threat and Miss Annersley must have carried it out as Prudence was only in Upper V 2 years later when the triplets were in the Sixth (See Redheads). I didn't mind the book and was glad to get a bit more about a grandchild of the school, namely Wanda Von Eschenau. Was she Bernhilda's daughter cos I do know she refers to Marie Von Eschenau as her aunt in another book but her name is never mentioned when discussing Bernhilda's kids. Does anyone know?

#6: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:05 am
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I think Wanda and Carlotta von Escheneau are Wolfram von Escheneau's children (Wanda and Marie's younger brother), as they aren't mentioned in any of the lists of Bernhilda's children.

#7: Author: Loryat,

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:01 pm
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I really liked this book. I thought the scene where Miss Andrews confesses to the prank was really funny, as was the scene where Miss Bertram faints and someone throws the vase of flowers all over her. EBD at her best!

I quite like Jack in this book, and haven'r read many others in which she features so unlike everyone else on here I don't hate her. I also think quite a few of the other characters are pretty well drawn, and like seeing the younger Wanda.

Len comes across well in this book IMO, sticking up for Jack and Margot. I quite like Len as a character and unlike Mary-Lou I don't think she's to bossy, but I haven't read many of the books that follow this so maybe that's why. Smile

The punishment seems fair, as Miss A has no intention of keeping those who do try down with the others. And it has the desired effect (obviously, as Miss A is infallible).

#8: Author: Phil, Location: London UK

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:33 pm
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I really don't like Jack one little bit. She is too realistic. I've met people like her! So, in a perverse way I admit she is an excellent character, especially in this book and in the others in which she features, but I really don't like her bullying ways. Very realistic.

Don't know what to think about the Abbess holding a whole class back a year, oddly enough, I was beginning to tire of Prudence Dawbarn by this time.

Good to see Len being landed with such a trial as Jack.

#9: Author: jtcw78,

Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:59 pm
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It seemed to me that the whole of what was to become Jack's gang seemed to have even less ability to think for themselves than Mary-Lou's gang. They follow dominant characters (Jack, or Renata, when Jack's suspected of the trick on Miss Bertram) almost blindly, and I wish we'd seen a bit more development of the individual characters. Having said that, it is nice to see Wanda, and she does appear to have a mind of her own!

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