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#1: Books: Monica Turns Up Trumps Author: Róisín, Location: Ireland

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 5:41 pm
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There is a synopsis here. Monica was published in 1936. In it, EBD told the story of Monica Marillar and her cousins the McNabs - all these characters later attend the Chalet School. Monica is removed from her school due to bad behaviour and is sent to Braemar House - she doesn't want to go to Braemar House because it doesn't have a gymnasium and what she wants most is to be a gym mistress. While all this is going on, her cousins Vicki and Alixe McNab come to live with the Marillar family and there is quite a bit of tension between Vicki and Monica.

So have many people read this book? It was reprinted by GGB fairly recently (their page is down so I can't check when) and is fairly cheap to buy as a dustwrapperless hardback reprint. What do you think of Dr. Marillar's methods for bringing up Monica - is he a sympathetic father? Do you like Barney during his brief appearance? Should Vicki have come in for so much grief over that table being near the fire?

And anything else you would like to say about Monica Turns Up Trumps please go ahead and post below Very Happy

#2: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:06 am
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I quite liked this book.

I like the portrayal of the Marilliar family. Dr Marilliar is a widower, but he is also a competent parent - he cares for his kids, he is involved in their lives, and he pays attention to their education and deportment, but he's not perfect. Monica is well drawn too. She's a basically good kid who has fallen into bad ways, and is stubborn and high spirited enough that she needs a sharp shock to get her into shape, although I can see how the change of school and lack of PT would make her really angry. I like the way Barney and Dr Marilliar double team her to help her see that she does need to shape up, and I like her protectiveness towards her cousin.

The introduction of the McNabs is interesting too, and the conflict between Vicky and Monica realistic. Vicky has been used to running the roost, and does not have a very flexible approach to things. She deserved to get in trouble for the table incident, not so much for the initial problem, but for refusing to listen to Monica, who did know how valuable the table was, for physically refusing to move it back, and for refusing to admit she had done anything wrong after she had broken a valuable, and sentimentally important, screen. Her attempts to interfere with Monica and Alixe's friendship are pretty nasty too, although the adults sit pretty firmly on both instances.

I read this book after reading the corresponding Chalet books, so it was also interesting to see the background of the characters compared to the was they appear at school. Vicky, for example, comes across as remote, dignified and rather stately at school, but is much more complex here.

#3: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 7:45 pm
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I enjoyed this. Firstly, Monica was well-drawn, initially as a schoolgirl who enjoyed ragging in class more than she liked working. I think Braemar House was a good choice for her, and certainly I feel that Dr. Mariliar chose wisely when he sent her there.

He was a good parent, because under his sternness, he really cared about his children. He might have taken Monica away from her beloved school, but he was kind and generous, and never begrudged her any treats, and was so thrilled with her reports at the end of the Autumn term that he immediately let her join the hockey team and the gym class that she wanted so much.

Whereas Alixe settled in well, Vicky was more of a problem. I think Vicky was well summed up when she thought that Monica had no-one to look after her, and decided to be a real elder sister to her. This was when she was sitting at the tea-table with Peggy Primrose, Monica's aunt!

Vicky could never admit that she was in the wrong, and had a flexible conscience. She was also domineering and a bully, and decidedly vengeful, hence her trying to prevent the friendship between Monica and Alixe. She was very much to balme over the episode of the table, and even more so over the firescreen. She refused to listen to Monica, and when she had destroyed the screen, she was even prepared to let Monica take the blame for the possible damage and the destruction that she had caused.

The necklace episode was a case in point. She knew that Monica treasured it, but still borrowed it.

I felt that one of the most telling things about Vicky was that she prided herself on being clever, but disliked reading and was scornful about it.

I think the ending was good, with Barney home, and all resolved, with Monica showing just how generous she was.

#4: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:13 am
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I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Monica Turns up Trumps. In many ways, the theme is similar to Heather Leaves School (another of my faves!) - girl is at a public school which she loves, but her family feel isn't doing her any good, they take her away and have her educated at home / in a small local school, she resents this, but eventually reforms, via some angst with a stuck up cousin / local girl.

What I like about Monica, though, is how much she acheives her reformation on her own and how thoroughly it sticks. Heather is helped along the way considerably by Janie Lucy, and with the whole random inheritance thing at the end, we never really get to see her being a normal girl, in the way that Monica is when we meet her at the Chalet School. I would have loved Heather to come to the school, too - but the chronology is probably all wrong...

But I digress.

Vicky is a bit of a nasty piece of work in this - and her portrayal here doesn't (IMO) match terribly well with the stately, intellectual but fundamentally decent girl we meet in Goes To It. The strife between Vicky and Monica is, I think, well done and to be expected - both have been used to being #1 daughter, and neither is prepared to give way to the other much - although Monica is less to blame than Vicky, she's not entirely blame free (although, Vicky would try the patience of a saint!). Vicky's bullying of Alixe, who seems very cowed in this book, is perhaps a little heavy handed on EBD's part.

I adore Monica's brother, the lovely Barney. I wish we had met him again. I think (considering his brief appearance) he's one of the best written / most natural of all the random brothers / boy friends we meet in EBD... Let me see, how old is he here? By rights, he should end up marrying shy cousin Alixe, I reckon.

Aunt Peggy Primrose: improbable name, improbably selfless position. Does she want no life of her own? Or maybe she's been in love with the good Dr Marilliar from the beginning...? She's not so very old, and Monica and Barney hardly need her around now - she needs to either marry the Doc or go have a big adventure of her own.

#5: Author: Joyce, Location: Hong Kong

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 12:07 pm
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I loved Monica and the fact that she was such a normal person - not overly good but not entirely bad either.

And it must have been hard for her to go from being the pampered only daughter and popular girl to being one of three girls at home and not overly popular at school.

I absolutely loved the description of Monica's room especially the casket and the necklace. If I had been Vicky I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't have succumbed to temptation as well!

But can anyone tell me why Aunt Peggy tells Vicky it's bad form to wear borrowed jewelry when she was planning to lend Vicky a necklace herself?

#6: Author: Maeve, Location: Romania

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:15 pm
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I haven't read this in a while but remembering liking it when I did. Monica's father and brother are nicely paired in the different ways they interact with her and you can feel the genuine family affection even when people get things wrong. Braemar House is interesting with its different educational methods and Monica´s difficult interaction with at least one of the teacher's - sorry - can't remember the details - made the plot more satisfying.

Vicky was incredibly annoying, but I felt sorry for her coming from a family with little money for extras and seeing Monica with so many luxuries by comparison. Especially as Monica didn't seem to be terribly aware of her good fortune. I can understand how that would rankle.

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