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#1: Books: Summer Term at the CS Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:00 am
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Nearing the end of the series here...

Joey encounters Erica on the streets of London, who has been left to her guardianship by a woman who she met briefly in India 20 years ago, and takes her back to Switzerland, adopting an orphaned French child on the way.

Erica joins the school, gets adopted into "The Crew" and suffers from jealousy on the part of Victoria Wood, sprains her ankle, suffers an attack of bees, and runs off and falls down a hole. Meanwhile, we also have the plans for the 25th anniversary. The sale gets rained out, with dramatic consequences.

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Opinions? Really, what can you say about Joey's tendency to adopt anything that comes her way ("But Jack, she followed me home. Can I keep her?") or Erica's mother's disposition of her daughter.

Any views on "The Crew"? Would they have become the next set of leaders in the school, after Jack's gang? What about the Erica and Victoria conflict.

It's a lot harder to think of conversation topics for the last few books, as they all begin to sound similar - new girl joins school, fits it, suffers from attacks by jealous classmates, has an accident or discovers long lost relatives and all is well. Finish with pageant/pantomime/sale/games day as appropriate.

#2: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:03 am
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I have to say that I find the beginning of this book the silliest part of the whole series! I can just about accept Erica bumping into Joey in London and recognising her from some old photos, but I really can't accept someone leaving the guardianship of their daughter to a person whom they'd only ever known briefly and had lost touch with 20 years earlier! Also, Erica mentions Joey's books very early on, so she obviously knew that Joey was an author: had it never occurred to either her mother or their solicitors to try contacting Joey through her publishers?

Then there's Claire. I appreciate that rules on fostering weren't as strict then as they are now, but surely no-one would've been allowed just to take a baby and take her to another country just like that? The authorities seem content to override whatever rules there are just because Jack Maynard says so! And, OK, Joey was appointed Erica's legal guardian in Erica's mother's will and it would've been hard to've said no, but the idea of just collecting babies at random is pretty far-fetched, and the story of Claire's background (nobleman runs off with ballet dancer) is about as clichéd as you can get.

The rest of the book is all pretty standard - all been heard before!

This isn't one of my favourite books - just in case you hadn't guessed!

#3: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 1:10 pm
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I agree, it was dull. Very little that hadn't been done before, some (most) of it stretching the bounds of credibility as with the adoption of Claire. I suppose EBD had to find a way of bringing in a bad storm, and she did it to ruin the Sale, just for a change.

I did wonder whether someone had deliberately upset the baby just before her relatives visited. Apart from that, the life of the school seemed pretty dull, with nothing really new. By this time, the series was getting fairly tired and repetitive, so not one of my favourites.

I think the contrast is made even sharper for me because I've just been re-reading the Tyrol books.

#4: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 2:58 pm
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I agree - I've always thought of this as one of the weaker titles. Not necessarily that bad (I save bad for Althea and Prefects, and bits of Adrienne), just a bit dull and lacklustre.

The Erica thing - well, I like the idea of harking back to Joey's younger days. If it had just been that Jo was an unofficial godmother (like she was to Jo Scott), then I could buy that, but legal guardian? Come off it. And then I read Alison H's comment:

Alison H wrote:

Also, Erica mentions Joey's books very early on, so she obviously knew that Joey was an author: had it never occurred to either her mother or their solicitors to try contacting Joey through her publishers?

This completely hadn't occurred to me! But now that it has, honestly! Joey is famous, and is mentioned by name in Dacia's will as Erica's guardian! Surely, the executor of the will has a legal duty to track her down, and surely it wouldn't be that difficult.

The jealous form mate thing is limp, too, and handled in a kind of apologetic way, almost as if EBD knows it's a bit feeble.

I do like Erica herself - she's a bit dizzy in a way that few of EBD's heroines are. And her relationship with Claire is lovely, too - the way she feels a bond with the child, because they are both alone etc.

The whole Claire thing is daft, of course. If EBD wanted Jo to have another child to look after, then (a) she shouldn't have made Phil be so ill (then it would be more realistic that Jo and Jack adopt again) or (b) she could have had Jo have another baby or (c) she should have just found a more realistic way to do it! Perhaps Erica could have had a much younger sister, and Dacia could have died in childbirth, leave Erica and baby alone. Or something.

Am I ranting? I think perhaps I should shut up now Very Happy

#5: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:00 pm
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Feel free to rant away. I think the problem is that everything has been done before in one shape or form or another. The Tyrol books on the other hand, have far more vibrancy and freshness about them,making them a pleasure to re-read.

#6: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:27 pm
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The random adoption storyline cracks me up - it just seems so bizarre, even for Joey. Although if you look at the history of wardships in CS land....

In chronological order:

Juliet: student whose parents attempt to abandon her at the school without support, and are then killed in a car crash after winning money gambling and leave her to Madge's guardianship until she comes of age.

Robin: orphaned daughter of a friend of Joey's father who happens to send Robin to the school due to a friendship with Herr Anserl, an Austrian.

Biddy O'Ryan: orphaned Irish girl who is stranded in Austria after running away from the prospect of an orphanage, is befriended by the middles and then formally adopted by the CS *guide company*.

Daisy and Primula: orphaned children of Joey's brother in law's estranged sister, whom Joey encounters in the streets of Innsbruck

Flora and Fiona: younger sisters of a friend of a friend of Joey's who desperately need a place to stay due to the war after they're orphaned, their sister is called up and their home island is commandeered by the navy

Carola Johnstone: girl who runs away to school, and it turns out that her father, who is in Africa, is an old classmate and friend of Jack's

The Pertwees: are taken in by Cornelia Flower on the basis that she's an old girl of the school who happens to live near where their mother is when she falls ill, and the girls attended two full semesters at the school. Cornelia then takes them in permanently.

The Richardsons: children of a space mad widower whom the Maynards encounter on vacation and take in, and who turn out to be the children of
Joey's brother in law's estranged sister's eldest daughter's husband's mother's elder brother's daughter. Got that? Shocked

Adrienne: the granddaughter of Joey's father's friend's orphaned daughter's paternal grandmother's brother who Robin randomly encounters in Paris.

Erica: the orphaned daughter of an acquaintence of Joey's who she had met on a trip to India 20 years before who had been left to Joey's guardianship without the latter's knowledge or consent, or Erica even knowing where she lived, who randomly encounters Joey on the street on one of Joey's rare trips to England.

Marie-Claire: the orphaned daughter of a French ballet dancer and a French nobleman who was estranged from his family due to his marriage, whom Joey encounters in the train crash that kills her mother, and takes her home with her across international boundaries, based on the say so of Dr Jack Maynard, and then gets to keep, in spite of the fact that she has living relatives.

Shocked

#7: Author: Loryat,

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:23 pm
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Add to that Jo Scott who may not be an official ward of Joey's but whose mother does name Joey as her godmother - even though they were never that friendly.

I haven't read Summer Term since I was a kid but I seem to remember I enjoyed it and liked Erica. All these criticisms are putting me off rereading somewhat, but as it's rare and not on the transcripts site I don't suppose it's really an issue.

#8: Author: Mel, Location: UP NORTH

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 7:44 pm
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I agree with all the above. I would also add how odd that Joey knows London so well! The description of the train accident is well done though. I marvel at the convent which could take in so many unexpected guests and provide slippers, nighties and dresssing gowns!

#9: Author: Ray, Location: Bristol, England

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:08 pm
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I'm going to speak up for it because, for all its silliness, I actually rather like Summer Term. Although most of the storylines have been done before, after the dull improbability of Adrienne, Erica is a breath of fresh air. I'm not so keen on where she goes after this book, but here at least, she's bubbly and fun and surprisingly normal girl of 11 or 12.

When she has her sprained ankle, she *DOESN'T* just be sickeningly good and rest it, she does what any normal 11 or 12 year old would do...and goes and makes it worse! The spat she has with Victoria (and its resolution) is the sort of thing that does go on in a class of 11 or 12 year old girls... In otherwords, I find this particular group probably the most *normal* group of junior middles loosed on the CS!

The other thing that I really, *REALLY* like is EBD's description of the crash. It's probably her last really, *REALLY* good piece of action description in the whole series and (for me, at least) it's every bit as good as the description of the journey south for Shena, Flora and Fiona in Highland Twins.

Yes, the adoption storyline is silly. Yes the way Joey and Erica meet is even sillier. Yes Dacia making Joey Erica's legal guardian is...well beyond silly, frankly! But, the whole story (for me at least) actually hangs together in a way that some of the other books (Princess springs to mind, in particular) don't.

Ray *being contrary!*

#10: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:19 pm
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Caroline wrote:

Hmm, that comment now makes me wonder if Miss Dakers or the executor didn't have a motive for not hunting Joey down. I wonder how much Erica was meant to inherit, and how much was actually there when she came of age. *gift-wraps plot-bunny and leaves it lying around for some luckless soul*

#11: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:30 pm
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Mel wrote:

I marvel at the convent which could take in so many unexpected guests and provide slippers, nighties and dresssing gowns!

Ah well! It was a School in holiday time, so they had everything available!! How convenient!

Of course the books were written for children, who would accept the unlikely plot devices much more easily than we do.

#12: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:34 pm
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What I didn't find credible was the way that they allowed Jo to take the baby, when they really had no idea who she was.

#13: Author: skye,

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:30 pm
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Jennie wrote:

What I didn't find credible was the way that they allowed Jo to take the baby, when they really had no idea who she was.

Her husband was the respected director of a sanatorium, Joey a respected novelist. She had a tribe of children, was presentable, caring and affectionate and offered to look after the child. Why would anyone go to the trouble of walking past Joey to look for someone else to take the child?

#14: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:39 am
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Particularly when you realise that the baby's situation was totally unknown. The most likely situation was that the child had a living father and extended family, who would be worried sick when they didn't show up at their destination, would frantically travel to the crash site, identify his wife's body, ask where his daughter was and be told that this English woman living in Switzerland had taken her home with them, across international borders, with plans to keep her unless she was claimed.

I like the description above of Erica as dizzy - it fits. She's thoughtless and a bit impulsive and isn't either a paragon of virtue or one of the really bad middles. It shows up again in Althea, when she's one of the group who is pushing for motor boats.

If you could ignore the random adoption plots and the recycling of over used elements (jealousy, sprained ankle, storm, when animals attack, falling down a hole) it's not really bad - I think the improbability of the starting premise, plus the fact that we've seen all the elements of the plot before, makes it grating.

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

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:09 pm
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I actually don't mind this one and really like the group of friends Erica becomes friends with. Love the argument between Victoria and Nita when they're out walking. They don't seem too exclusive and are pretty friendly with everyone in the from which I also liked

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