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Books: A Chalet Girl From Kenya
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4762
Author:  jennifer [ Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:19 am ]
Post subject:  Books: A Chalet Girl From Kenya
A synopsis can be found here

What do you think of Jo Scott, her relationship to Maisie Gomm (remember her?) and Joey's unexpected godmother status? Does the native insurrection theme fit in with the general tone of the series? How is Jo's friendship with Josette, given that it appears to vanish after this book?

Any other comments?
Author:  Alison H [ Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:30 pm ]
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I like Jo - and think she should have been Head Girl after Josette - but I find the start of the book rather silly. Why on earth would Maisie Gomme, who barely knew Joey, name her daughter after her and tell the said daughter to regard her as an unofficial godmother?!! If EBD had to involve Joey, why not make the new girl the daughter of someone like Juliet, who was close to Joey?

Nice to see Josette with a close friend - although it doesn't last! - but I find the Gang rather annoying in this. Josette more or less asks permission of Mary Lou to include Jo in the Gang! Having said which, it's pretty realistic, going off what some of the gangs of girls at our school were like :lol: .
Author:  Aishwarya [ Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:34 pm ]
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Yes - I find the idea that Joey is just so special that someone who she barely knew in school would name their child after her a little suspect.


I like Jo as a character, though I always wince at that awful moment when she decides to shock a prefect by showing her what Kenyan dancing looks like. :roll:
Author:  claire [ Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:39 pm ]
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I think the only Saint who truely may have named a child after Joey was the one who fell through the ice, I could have seen that happening (if EBD hadn't killed her off at the beginning of the war)
Author:  Abi [ Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
As a character I really like Jo - she's very down-to-earth. I do think it's a shame she doesn't have a bigger role in the later books and she would have made a fantastic HG.

I'm another one who thinks it's a bit far-fetched that Maisie should have named her after Joey (though Maisie is a bit daft...!). I don't know much about Africa at that time, but I always feel that the native part is only really used as a bit of tension; something that will affect Jo but since parents almost never die you never feel that worried as you know it will all be all right in the end. I suppose EBD doesn't really make all the use of it that she could.
Author:  Pado [ Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:00 am ]
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I stupidly thought she'd be a native Kenyan before I read the book. Clearly, I never picked up on the whole colonial bit...which is probably why I thought Gay was Chinese for the longest time, too.

But I do like Jo.
Author:  Dreaming Marianne [ Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:37 pm ]
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Me too Pado!

I like this book very much, I think it's exciting and well paced - Jo is a 4 dimensional charatcer as opposed to a cardboard cut out (Althea anyone?) I thought the Joey-as-unofficial-godmother was absolute tripe. One almost expects the woman to glow in the dark, so special is she at making an impression on tangential characters.
Author:  Clare [ Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:40 pm ]
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Dreaming Marianne wrote:
One almost expects the woman to glow in the dark, so special is she at making an impression on tangential characters.


ROTFL! Brilliant Marianne!
Author:  jennifer [ Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:52 am ]
Post subject: 
From the letter quoted from Maisie, I can see her as being silly enough to name her daughter after someone she admired in school, and then foist her off on her.

Leila Elstob's fixation on Con seems weirder, as I don't think they have had much to do with each other.

That aside, I like the book. Jo is a good character - a nice, normal, mentally balanced young girl, not particularly brilliant at anything, but practical and a hard worker. I really wish she had been Head Girl, as she seems perfect for the role.

It's an interesting view of the prefects here, seeing them interact with the younger girls, and Ruth's bullying of her juniors. I think the Gang is at their most obnoxious in this book, particularly the point where Jo is informed that she has been 'auditioned' for admission in the Gang, on approval from Mary-Lou. Is Josette so weak willed and sheep like that she lets Mary-Lou approve her friends? What would she have done if Mary-Lou had said no?
Author:  Fiona Mc [ Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:07 pm ]
Post subject: 
jennifer wrote:
Leila Elstob's fixation on Con seems weirder, as I don't think they have had much to do with each other.


Not really as Con did give her the dollhouse she won the previous term I can see Con making a pretty decent impression on Leila for that.

I really like this book as I really like Jo as a character

Quote:
I think the Gang is at their most obnoxious in this book, particularly the point where Jo is informed that she has been 'auditioned' for admission in the Gang, on approval from Mary-Lou. Is Josette so weak willed and sheep like that she lets Mary-Lou approve her friends? What would she have done if Mary-Lou had said no?


Part of me think's Josette would have gone along with it partly because she had spent 2 years away from her friends in Canada and was probably feeling on the outer with the gang and so would try and fit in as much as possibe.
Author:  Róisín [ Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:57 pm ]
Post subject: 
Pado wrote:
I stupidly thought she'd be a native Kenyan before I read the book. Clearly, I never picked up on the whole colonial bit...which is probably why I thought Gay was Chinese for the longest time, too.

But I do like Jo.


Yes, this frustrated me SO MUCH as a ten year old. I waited for ages and ages for this one and for From China, and when it turned out that these were yet more white, upper class, English girls (albeit expats) I was so annoyed! I still am, a little, although I know what to expect from EBD now (I didn't then). I would quite like to see a real and proper version of A Chalet Girl from Kenya/ China.
Author:  Joyce [ Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:23 am ]
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Every time I read this book, much as I like Jo, one thing really bugs me.

When news that Jo's parents are fine comes in, Joey says she wishes they had not told Jo so soon and thus spared her a night of worrying.

Then Miss Annersley tells her that a gossipy woman living on the Platz had already asked her whether Jo was the daughter of the Scotts who were in trouble in Kenya.

Does this woman know the names of every single girl at the school. How could she have known that a Jo Scott was going to the school?

And even if she did somehow know Jo's name then why would she connect them to the Scotts in Kenya? Scott is hardly an uncommon name.

And even if she did work it out she is hardly likely to be going around telling the girls about it. Surely they don't stop and talk to all and sundry when out of the school.

All I can imgine is that Miss Annersley was concerned that the woman was so tactless that she would grab a girl, even Jo, and ask her about her parents without any thought for her feelings.

cheers,
Joyce
Author:  Alison H [ Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:56 am ]
Post subject: 
There was so little to do on the Gornetz Platz that they probably all did know the names and home towns of every girl at the school! Especially as Joey seemed to think that no-one wanted to talk about anything but the school.

That bit was rather silly, though :roll: .
Author:  JayB [ Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:12 am ]
Post subject: 
There's the possibility of overheard conversations, as in Jane. Also, some of the girls had relatives living on the Platz, didn't they? They might have been visiting them and heard the story on the wireless or seen it in a newspaper or otherwise heard about it, and realised it was Jo's parents.
Author:  Travellers Joy [ Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:50 am ]
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Years ago I heard a report on the radio about a woman who'd been raped. The only details they gave were the location and the woman's age. I immediately thought of a teacher from school. Absolutely no reason for me to connect the two - there must have been hundreds of women of that age living in that particular part of the city. Unfortunately I was right. So it never struck me as strange that someone on the Platz would make the connection with Jo, especially when the people were named.
Author:  Loryat [ Thu Sep 11, 2008 5:50 pm ]
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I also expected Jo to be a black girl, and for years was really impressed with EBD for being so forward thinking :oops: . Of course I should've realised it couldn't be true...actually I can't remember when I came to see that I was wrong about it; hopefully if was before I read the transcript last year. :D

I like Jo as a character and like the friendship between her and Josette, can't imagine what EBD was thinking when she dropped it like a hot potato. But I have shady ideas of this book really as I read it as a transcript. I did think the Gang were totally over the top in this one, though more because I'm surprised that EBD was not condemning this type of exclusiveness, which is quite believable. One wonders what Jo would have done if she hadn't been able to prove herself through an act of heroism; would she have 'hung on' at the fringes for years after? It seems a bit unfair, too, considering no-one else had to risk life and limb to get in. :) Was this type of 'exclusive' gang in vogue in school story writers at the time? Maybe that's why EBD tried it, for it doesn't really seem like 'her'.

I find the Maisie Gomm thing quite believable; she seems very silly and I can totally see her wishing she could make a minor celebrity her daughter's godmother. It's a bit pathetic really.

I was very annoyed by the colonial attitudes expressed - the Mau Mau couldn't possibly be in the right about anything, of course Kenya should be governed by a foreign power - I know that that was the general attitude of the time, but it still annoys me. Wish EBD could have been a bit more progressive, as she was in other things.
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