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#1: Books: Janie Steps In Author: Róisín, Location: Ireland

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 8:37 pm
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Published in 1953, Janie Steps In links into the CS-world via the usual La Rochelle connections. Nan Blakeney comes to stay with Janie and Julian Lucy in Guernsey, after her mother has been killed in a car accident. The book describes how she recovers, under Janie's care. There is also description of how Peter Chester lost his money and how the Chesters are coping. During a picnic, Nan meets David Willoughby, whom she later marries.

So what did you think of this book? How do you feel about the treatment of Beth Chester at this stage? Do you like the portrayal of the Lucy's home life? What about Nan's engagement to David - is it too soon; do they know each other well enough?

Any opinions you have on this book, the last of the La Rochelle series, please join in and post below Very Happy

Next Sunday: The Chalet School in Exile

#2: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 9:25 pm
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I felt very sorry for Beth, who really did seem to be hard done by - it was apparently OK for relatives to pay for everyone else's schooling but not hers, and then her parents objected to her making friends at the school they did send her to. I found the Chesters' reaction to their financial woes a bit pathetic generally - Anne just seemed to wallow in doom and gloom instead of doing anything practical Confused

.

I really liked Janie in the way she reacted to Nan's engagement: I thought she was very sensible. Obviously some people get engaged after not knowing each other long and then have very happy marriages, but I liked Janie's gentle caution, as opposed to Joey Maynard pressurising Len into making a decision about Reg (OK, Len and Reg'd known each other for ages, but not in a romantic way).

Ooh good, Exile next week!

#3: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:57 am
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I also feel sorry for Beth. For a twelve year old she's gone through a major upset in her life, from indulged daughter of a well-to-do family with holidays in France, a governess, private lessons, lots of play time etc. to a second rate school where she's not allowed to make friends because the girls are the wrong class, having to do chores and look after her younger siblings rather than play. Add to that distracted parents and a frail baby sister who needs all their attention, and you've got a very unhappy pre-teen. *Then* her parents let family help all the children *except* Beth (making her feel abandoned), and Anne seems determined to alienate the girl as much as possible without listening to anyone else. If the CS hadn't shown up, there could easily have been a permanent rift between the two.

I like Janie in this book. It's sort of like Joey, but with tact, less ego, and a more balanced outlook on life. Her concern for both Nan and Anne is genuine, and she's doing her best to help them. Her advice to Nan re the engagement is very sound and much more reasonable than instantly becoming engaged to the first man you meet after leaving school. She's not saying don't do it, she's saying, wait and see and make sure this is what you want. Someone needed to tell Len that in Prefects.

I also like the view of Nan and her grief. In many of the CS books, grief is passed over fairly lightly - a parent dies, the child is told to keep a stiff upper lip, and all is well. Nan is still grieving, and needs both time and help to move on with her life.

I also like the kids - Mike and Bill on the ship, and the Lucy kids at home. They're funny and not portrayed as either unrealistically good or irredeemably bad.

#4: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:42 am
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I like this book a lot, although it is probably the La Rochelle I have read the fewest times. In some ways, it reads to me as a bit of an afterthought. EBD has married off all of her La Rochelle heroines that really matter and to keep this story young and not all about married-people-with-very-young-children-who-have-money/baby/marital-problems, has to import a person we haven't previously met - Nan.

Having said that, I like Nan, and I like the way Janie handles her. I find Rosamund's love for Nan and lack of ability to help her rather tragic - poor, poor Rosamund, so desperate to help and so unable to do so - and it's very brave of her to admit that she can't help and send Nan to Janie.

It's also very good of Janie to take in a very needy perfect stranger when she is already knee-deep in children (her own and her nieces and nephews), and is also pregnant for a good part of the book. But then Janie (and Jo and Madge) are like that - one more is never a problem or a burden for her. And Nan fits in to the Lucy family very well (although, to some extent she is utilised as Mother's Help in the same way that Beth and Maria are by Joey - although it's not formalised in this instance).

The Beth thing. Well, it's a plot device, obviously. But I can just about see how a very proud couple, who are suddenly much worse off (although not poor in any real sense) than the others of their circle, are going to fiercely resent being patronised or treated as what seems to them to be charity cases. So, becuase the education of the younger children can be dressed up as sharing-a-governess or he's-my-god-son, their pride isn't dented (much), but special arrangements would have had to be made for Beth and Anne's pride can't stand it - that really would be taking charity.

Unfair on Beth, of course. And hugely so. But I can see that Anne in particular has got herself in a right state about it and just isn't thinking straight. And Peter is burying his head in the sand about the whole thing and hoping it will go away (of course, he is presumably worried sick about money, and just working all the hours trying to keep up his practice and stop things getting worse...).

I wonder if Anne has post-natal depression after Barbara's birth? And maybe there is an element of delayed grief after the death of their son - Piers, is it? Whatever, Anne seems to be on the brink of a breakdown quite a lot of the time, and unfortunately, Beth ends up suffering the most. In the circumstances, I think Janie does really well to handle it in the way that she does, and thank goodness for the Chalet School - that's what I say!

Nan and David - well, it is a bit quick, but at least EBD has them meet before forming an attachment, unlike Maidie Willoughby and her Northern Saint Rolling Eyes

. So, in the context of GO-book relationships it seems remarkably sensible. And it makes for a nice happy ending for Nan, completing her Journey...

Very Happy

#5: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 7:15 pm
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I loved the scene with Bill on the boat.

But I found the children rather unrealistic, although I suppose in the era before television and nursery-school, they did think up awful things to do! And the scene that grates on modern ears is when one of them (John, I think) gets spanked, and he can't believe that Daddy could hurt him so badly on purpose. Nor, I am sure, could any modern parent! But EBD seems to think that other consequences don't do the trick.

#6: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 2:49 pm
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I think Janie comes out of this rather well. For a start, she is the one to tackle Anne about Beth's problems, even though she knows that Anne will be offended.

She also tackles Nan's grief for her mother, knowing that it is a very sore point with Nan, but no-one else had the common-sense to do it.

And finally, when Nan is contemplating getting engaged to David Willoughby, Janie is very firm that Nan should meet and get to know David properly and meet and get to know other young men before she makes an irrevocable decision about her future.

Even though Janie is seen as part-child-part woman in this, she is still very sensible and thoughtful. She makes a good contrast with her sisters as Elizabeth is rather lazy about disciplining her family, and Anne is too rigid to see that she is harming Beth with her attitude.

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