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#1: Books: Adrienne and the Chalet School Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:25 am
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Here we have Adrienne, a young French girl who is left orphaned and in a bad neighbourhood in Paris. She is rescued by Robin (as Soeur Cecile) and sent to the Chalet School, under the care of Joey.

She makes friends with Ailie, Janice and Judy, and is subjected to rumours about cheating and general hostility by a jealous classmate. We have winter sports, and a half term sheets and pillowcases party at Joey's, and a treasure hunt for entertainment. Mary-Lou drops by unexpectedly, Phil has mastoid problems, and Matey locks herself into a bathroom. Adrienne gets her hair burned off in a fire, and Mary-Lou realises that she looks like the Robin, through what turns out to be a very confused chain of relationships.

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So what do you think of this one? Has the random relationship thing been done to death? Same question for the jealous classmate story-line. Is Adrienne a likeable character? Is anyone else puzzled that after two years in Paris, no one seems to have visited the Robin?

Is this one of the better of the latter books of the series, or a set of recyled plot lines and stereotypes stuck together into a book?

On a more general line, what do you think of Robin's adult years - her entry into nunhood and subsequent events. Is this a logical progression for her, or did EBD just not know how to handle Robin as a character once she was an adult?

#2: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:56 pm
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I think the random relation was completely overdone here - firstly, why was it needed anyway? The reason she was at the School was because Robin happened to be the nun that rescued her and then knew that she would have a good education and life at the School - there was really no need to suddenly discover that she was related to Robin and through her to the entire Maynard clan. The actual explanation of how she was related was very spurious and having Mary Lou pop up to be the only one that recognised it seemed ridiculous - why didn't Joey, with her famed ability to read expressions and faces, see that the girl looked like her adopted sister?

It always seems strange to me that Robin never saw any of the Maynards or School - she was obviously allowed out of the convent so it wasn't a closed order, surely they could have arranged to meet up in Paris? I know convents and monasteries wer far stricter in the 1950's than now but I cannot believe they would have refused a few hours to visit with family.

The jealous classmate is another story that is recycled here - it was seen originally with Simone back in the Tyrol, more recently with Mary Woodley and Barbara Chester and with Francie Wilford and Ruey Richardson. The Chalet School, for all it's famed tolerance, acceptance and love seems to churn out at least one girl a year who is prepared to actively dislike and cause trouble for a new girl because they have been succesful at making friends.

This book comes across as a very tired re-hash of many of the plot lines used before - which is a great pity as the initial scenes - Adrienne alone in Paris - held great promise.

A disappointment.

#3: Author: Clare, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:52 pm
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I read this as a transcript a couple of years ago so don't remember much, other than the fact the 'random relation' really spoiled it! As Lesley said, what was the need in it? It really drove me round the bend, but I will still buy it when GGBP publish it.

#4: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 6:00 pm
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The random relationship bit's completely unnecessary - and didn't even ring true given that Adrienne's related to Robin's father and we've always been told that Robin's the image of her mother. It's nice to see the adult Robin, but I don't understand why none of the Maynards went to visit her in France: there are several references to the Maynard children visiting the de Bersacs in their summer holidays, so surely they could have got to France to see Robin and found somewhere cheap to stay overnight. And a lot of the other parts of the story - jealous classmate, freak accident, etc - have been heard umpteen times before.

On the positive side, I like seeing more of the Ailie/Janice/Judy age group. They get overlooked in the books just before and after this, which seem to switch between the triplets' age group and Jack Lambert's age group, in the same way that anyone in between OOAO's gang and the triplets' friends gets overlooked in the earlier Swiss books. I'd like to've seen more of them.

#5: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:14 pm
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Lesley wrote:

The actual explanation of how she was related was very spurious and having Mary Lou pop up to be the only one that recognised it seemed ridiculous

Similarly when ML was demanding to know why she hadn't been told Robin was in Paris. Why should she have been? She only knew Robin when ML herself was aged 10-14 and Robin was an adult who had already left home. She can't have known her all that well, and we certainly never had any suggestion that they were great friends.

#6: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:53 pm
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I would interpret it as being used to getting Maynard letters that chronicled family news. A move to Paris is fairly major item not to have come out in the usual litany.

#7: Author: Rachelj, Location: Surrey

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:28 pm
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I actually quite like this book. It's nice to see Robin. It's interesting that the Reverend Mother sees her as so English when she's half-Polish and spent most of her formative years abroad! Becoming a nun was probably the only was for Robin to preserve her angelic character, and she is very selfless so would fit in well. Maybe it would also make it less obvious that she has no blood family, because everyone has left their family behind.

Adrienne is a nice girl, maybe a bit too saintly and perhaps a bit dull once the excitement of her background has worn off. I don't mind the storyline with Janet - at least it's a bit different being jealous of her place in form rather than her friendships. I like the little hints about Len and Reg's relationship (not that I actually like Reg!) though it bugs me a bit that Len 'grows up completely' at least twice and then I'm sure in a later book (Prefects?) Reg is grumbling about her not wanting to grow up.

The random relationship bit is way too much of a coincidence. The bit that annoys me most is how astonished ML is to spot the resemblance to Robin once Adrienne has curls, yet when she first met Adrienne she was perfectly sure that she knew who Adrienne was related to, though she refused to tell Jo.

All in all this book has lots going on, and if we've seen many of the storylines before, well that's the EBD we know and love!

Rachel

#8: Author: Loryat,

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:23 pm
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I quite liked Adrienne and I've only read in on transcript which is never as good as reading the actual book. I think it has a very strong start, and it was nice to see Robin as a strong adult character. I thought the Robin/nun storyline made a lot of sense because even as a child Robin is very devout, so I can believe her becoming a nun. It was also nice to have a central character who wasn't entirely English in Adrienne, even if she's not the most interesting of EBD's characters.

I liked Adrienne's friendship with the trio who seem a nice group often overlooked in other books as Alison said. I think EBD might have been building them up to play a bigger role later on but never had the chance. I also liked the Janet storyline which I found quite believable even if the resolution wasn't great.

The Robin/Adrienne relationship was ridiculous though, and totally unnecessary. What grates the most is that it's Mary-Lou who notices it first.

#9: Author: JustJen, Location: at a baseball game

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:15 pm
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I thought the begin of the book was very good and I loved Robin but I was rather surpirsed that she asked Joey to give Adrienne a scholarship to the Chalet Shcool and offered to pay for the extra things out of the moeny that Jack held in trust for her.

I did like her relationship with the trio and I liked the Janet plotline as well. At least Janet wasn't beating up Adrienne.

The Sheets and pillows cases party was boring but I guess it was a good standby

I found the relationship between Robin and Adrienne was too much and how on earth did OOAO figure out the relationship when no one else could? Was Mary Lou even in school the same time Robin was?

#10: Author: Mel, Location: UP NORTH

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:41 pm
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I agree that it starts well, but has two many plotlines repeated. I really can't understand Joey not managing to see Robin. Is this the first mention of her in the French convent?
Why didn't EBD leave her there for a bit longer so that Jo and co and Adrienne could go to see her in the holidays? The idea of Hilda flying to Canada on business (?) is ludicrous. I think EBD misjudged reader reaction. Perhaps we are supposed to think 'Poor Joey unable to see her beloved Robin', when in fact most readers get very cross with Joey. For some reason, EBD wanted Robin out of the way, otherwise she would have her transferred to a Swiis convent on the Gornetz Platz. Why not? Everyone else ends up there!

#11: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 3:33 am
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I have a theory about Robin's disappearance from the series. Actually, I have two.

Theory 1: EBD didn't know how to age Robin into an adult. Sweet, angelic, instantly obedient, unspoiled, good tempered, sacrificing and all that is a bit nauseating in a six year old, in a 30 year old it would be even less believable. The Robin as a child was in the angelic, beautiful too good to be true mode seen in Victorian children's heroes, where the usual fate was for the child to be too good for the world, and to die young. (Beth of Little Women fits in this category too). Robin survives, and is left without a suitable role except nun.

Theory 2: if Robin had been left in the series as an adult, she would have provided too much competition for Joey as the perfect Chalet Girl. She's beautiful, sweet tempered, talented, intelligent, a hard worker, musical, kind and helpful, good with children, unselfish and has good dress sense. She's also younger and prettier than Joey and less tied down by family responsiblities, was a prefect for longer than Joey and was head girl, and most importantly, she's better loved than Joey was as a student. As a child, she wasn't direct competition, but as an independent adult (she had money from her father), she would be.

#12: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:09 am
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Mel wrote:

The idea of Hilda flying to Canada on business (?) is ludicrous. I think EBD misjudged reader reaction. Perhaps we are supposed to think 'Poor Joey unable to see her beloved Robin', when in fact most readers get very cross with Joey.

I don't agree actually... I think EBD was very much aware of reader feedback. She does a lot of competitions along the lines of 'who is your favourite character' in the newsletters - if you read the newsletters, it's quite clear that her contemporaneous readership adored Jo and Mary-Lou and Len, as did I when I was younger. She was writing for little girls in the first part of the 20th century, not adults in the 21st. I'd like to see some more of the adult characters now, as I identify with them, but when I was a kid I just wanted to read about the girls.

#13: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:27 am
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I skimmed this last night.

I do like Janice, Judy and Ailie. They are very well differentiated, likeable characters. Janice is developing into a good leader and I can see her as Head Girl in a couple of years. We get a few nice scenes of the Maynards at home.

Adrienne was interesting when we first met her, but I thought became a bit colourless once she reached school. We don't really get much sense of who she is, other than the oft-repeated vow to repay Joey and the Robin for all they've done for her.

EBD really did seem to be short of ideas for this one. The story seemed to be a collection of the old standbys - skiing, half term, sheets and pillowcases, etc, - with a few plot elements which never seem to be fully worked out, such as Adrienne not knowing what real schoolgirls are like, Janet's jealousy, which was never developed to the extent that, say, Eiluned's was in Peggy; Phil's illness. We get pages about the girls sitting quietly in their common rooms.

A few niggles:
There are just too many characters with names beginning with J in this book - Janice, Judy, Jane, Janet, Julia, in Inter V alone.

Joey is planning to fly to Australia for Sybil's wedding, but can't manage to travel to the next country to see Robin, to whom she was much closer than she ever was to Sybil?

Near the start of the story, Janice says they are all verging on sixteen. So they should be in the Vth. But why Inter V? And next school year, in Challenge, they're still in the Vth, when they must be getting on for seventeen. I can understand Adrienne going into Inter V when she's hardly been to school before, but why Janet, who's suposed to be so clever? Why didn't she go straight to Va or Vb? We don't hear of her being younger than the others.

#14: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:11 am
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JayB wrote:

Near the start of the story, Janice says they are all verging on sixteen. So they should be in the Vth. But why Inter V? And next school year, in Challenge, they're still in the Vth, when they must be getting on for seventeen. I can understand Adrienne going into Inter V when she's hardly been to school before, but why Janet, who's suposed to be so clever? Why didn't she go straight to Va or Vb? We don't hear of her being younger than the others.

This makes it seem that EBD has rather changed the meaning of Inter V. From being a form for those who need extra work before becoming proper Fifth Formers (or who are too young), in this book it seems to be functioning as a type of Lower Fifth, where everyone spends a year.

Mind you, EBD changes the meaning of her Fifth Forms regularly - I think Va and Vb were originally supposed to function as upper and lower fifths, with everyone spending a year in each. Then, when girls like the triplets get there, they seem to go from Inter V into either Va or Vb, and then straight into the Sixth, so the forms are functioning as streams...

But I digress. In theory, I like Adrienne, and I love that group of girls. Wish we saw more of them and less of Jack Lambert and Co. In practise, however, I don't think it works. Too disjointed, and I hate the resolution of the Robin / Adrienne storyline.

#15: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:39 am
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Caroline wrote:

But still, if Janice and Co are nearly 16 here, they should be Upper V/Va in Adrienne and Lower VI/VIb in Challenge. Although, having thought about it some more, Ailie shouldn't be fifteen in this book. She's younger than Steve Maynard, and we're told that he's fourteen (nearly fifteen, although EBD doean't say so.) Ailie should be fourteen and still in Upper IV.

I did enjoy seeing Robin at the start of the story, but the long-lost relative part was unnecessary - and unnecessarily convoluted. Also Dick writes as if Ted Humphries was his contemporary when initially he was a good deal older - had to be, if he'd served in the War and had a six year old daughter when he was first introduced.

I agree that EBD didn't know what to do with Robin as an adult. It's a pity she was written out so completely, but I suppose then EBD didn't have to deal with letters asking where she was.

#16: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:06 pm
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There's a definite trend for EBDisms in age.

Girls tend to age extra quickly when they're younger than about 13, so juniors tend to inexplicably jump up a year (like Mary-Lou and Co or the triplets) or the daughters of old girls go from being infants to juniors in a compressed amount of time.

Then, once they're about 12 or 13, they're much more likely to age slowly, spending spending several years being 14 or 15, getting that extra year in Inter V, being left back a term, or just taking five years to go from Upper fourth to Upper fifth. Then the last year or two, they progress normally (Upper Fifth -> Upper Sixth) but by that time should be two or three years older than they are.

I think it may have been a subconscious desire to keep the girls as middles (and the most interesting group to write about) for as long as possible. Juniors can't get into as much mischief and are more supervised, but seniors are supposed to be maturing into responsible prefects.

#17: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 3:28 pm
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jennifer wrote:

I think it may have been a subconscious desire to keep the girls as middles (and the most interesting group to write about) for as long as possible. Juniors can't get into as much mischief and are more supervised, but seniors are supposed to be maturing into responsible prefects.

I completely agree. When EBD gets a group of middles she likes and likes to write about, she definitely clings on to them and doesn't want to let them get older. Especially if she doesn't have another group ready to take their place.

I think she does this almost from day one. Various girls are still talking about Corney and Evvy and Co. as being mischievious middles when they are actually sub-prefects of 15 or 16...

#18: Author: Fiona Mc, Location: Bendigo, Australia

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:26 am
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JayB wrote:

I do like Janice, Judy and Ailie. They are very well differentiated, likeable characters. Janice is developing into a good leader and I can see her as Head Girl in a couple of years. We get a few nice scenes of the Maynards at home.

It's funny but I always think that group of girls would be hard to choose from for Head Girl. My choice would either be Janice like you said or Jane Carew or Jose Helston
That aside I didn't mind the book too much as I really liked Ailie and janice and Co

#19: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 1:58 pm
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Yes, I think Jose would be a good choice too. Ailie is clearly destined to be Games Prefect. In some ways it's a pity there are so many well drawn characters in that year, when the year between them and the triplets is so lacking - I think Audrey Everett is the only girl we know well in that year.

Hmmm. If I ever write the story that's kicking around in my head, maybe I'll do an EBD and shove some of them up a year. (But that won't be for a while, since I've been neglecting poor Con dreadfully recently.)

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