Richenda Fry has been sent to the Chalet School as a punishment. Her father is a specialist in historic porcelain and Richenda cannot resist handling the beautiful items, especially the rare Khang-he vase, even though she has been expressly forbidden to go near his valuable collection.

She arrives at the School sulky and determined to hate everything about it. This lasts about a day and a half, after which she decides to enjoy life to the full in order to render the punishment null and void. She teams up with the Maynard triplets, particularly Len and Con, and it is at their behest that she agrees to have her name shortened to the more friendly ‘Ricki’.

As a new girl, Ricki is invited to tea at Freudesheim, and Joey Maynard quickly senses that all is not well between Ricki and her father. Being Joey, she determines to get to the bottom of the matter before Ricki goes home to England again.

Out on a ramble to the village of St Cecilie, the girls of Vb are caught in a thunderstorm while still six miles away from the school. They shelter in a hay barn until the worst of the storm is over, but then find that the way back is blocked. The rainstorm has swollen the stream into a raging torrent which has burst its banks and the girls must wade across somehow.

Uncharacteristically, Joey has been unwell. She is to go for a consultation with Sir James Talbot in England, and so wants to have the triplets at home over half term. But when Joey hears that Ricki’s father expects Ricki to stay on her own at school as part of her ‘punishment’, Joey insists that Ricki should join the Freudesheim half-term party.

A talk with Joey over that half-term makes Ricki begin to change her attitude towards her father, but their reconciliation is only really effected by a near-tragedy when Ricki is the victim of an attack by a small boy in a dentists’ waiting room.

But his actions over Half Term are basically just nasty. Because he doesn't believe she has learnt her lesson he wants her to remain at the school and be given work. Even when told no-one will be there he insists she can remain and be looked after by the domestic staff. On this occasion thank goodness for Joey lioving next door and her warm heart.

Sightly irrelevant, but one thing which really annoys me about this book is that Joan Baker - whom Ricki takes a dislike to because of her "cheap prettiness" (poor Joan, she can't even be pretty without it being the wrong sort of prettiness!) - never gets the credit she deserves for her bravery in helping other girls across the swollen stream . Anyone else would've got a CS bravery medal for that.

I was confused when I read this book as I kept expecting Con and Richenda to become friends (as they apparently are in later books) but it never happens. It seems instead that Richenda is becoming friendly with Len, and yet they're never all that friendly in later books. And Richenda's friend (Sue?) seems to vanish after she is introduced in Ruey. Though I suppose it's perfectly believable that she and Richenda would have drifted apart over time.

As Joey points out, has she ever even tried to explain her pov to her dad?

I do think this is understandable, though. I never get the impression that he's the sort of parent who would encourage his daughter to talk to him in this way, and if she's never been taught to, why would she even attempt it? She'd assume it wouldn't do any good. I do see this more as Prof Fry's fault that Richenda's.

He should have realised the Richenda is interested in ceramics if he had half a brain. What difference would it have made if R had been a boy - which is what he says 'it would have been easier.' Does that mean he would have beaten him more?

I always took this to mean that Professor Fry, having been a boy, would be better able to identify with one. There doesn't seem to be a handy female relation available to help out with the upbringing of Richenda, so most of it seems to be left to 'outsiders' such as Nanny (who insultingly appears to have no other name) and Sue's mother.

At this time in particular I would guess that widowed fathers would be expected to let the 'upbringing' be done by a woman, and the fact that Professor Fry is reserved and quite old and serious exacerbates the problem. Even now I think bringing up a single teenage age daughter would be pretty difficult for a man without a close female relation/friend to take a hand when the 'woman's issues' come up.

I always took this to mean that Professor Fry, having been a boy, would be better able to identify with one. There doesn't seem to be a handy female relation available to help out with the upbringing of Richenda, so most of it seems to be left to 'outsiders' such as Nanny (who insultingly appears to have no other name) and Sue's mother.

At this time in particular I would guess that widowed fathers would be expected to let the 'upbringing' be done by a woman, and the fact that Professor Fry is reserved and quite old and serious exacerbates the problem. Even now I think bringing up a single teenage age daughter would be pretty difficult for a man without a close female relation/friend to take a hand when the 'woman's issues' come up.

I also can see Con's friendship with Ricki developing a little when they go get milk together and discuss maths. Len takes Ricki and Odette under her wing a little because of pity and because she's a sheepdog. I could see Ricki and Con gravitating naturally together with their love of the arts. Con, of all people could understand the desires and needs for wanting to be around ceramics in a way Len never can, as she's the same about writing. I also think best friends tend to develop over time and as Ricki gets to know people, close friendships develop and not always with the first person you started being friends with.

I also feel at times Rosamund did befriend Joan at school and I wonder if the two had been spending more time together that Len feeling left out started branching out more. Rosamund is a year older than Len and so at the beginning of the book Len is still 13 whereas Rosamund is 15 or nearly 15. I could see how that would make a difference in some things and Rosamund spends more time with Joan who is more her age and a long time friend. I thimk its interesting that Len who is so snooty about village school is best friends with someone who essentially from one. Did she say something about it and she and Rosamund have a cooling off period or was Rosamund turned off from Ricki because of her obvious snobbery towards Joan and inadvertently herself, and so tended to distance herself from Len as well?

What seems odd to me is that a scholar would have to own the objects of his research. I'd have expected him to spend more time in museums.

It always surprises me that he is the token Quaker parent in the series, since I can't think of any other fictional examples who come across as less than kindly and caring.