Abigail by Magda Szabó, for the #1970Club

This is an unusual school story set in Hungary during the Second World War, with an ominous political background. It particularly interested me, not only because of my love of school stories but also because I am a quarter Hungarian and have read very little fiction from that country. I chose it for the 1970 Club, which is hosted this week by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, featuring books published in that year.

Testimony by Anita Shreve - 5/20 Books of Summer

In Testimony, Shreve’s fifteenth novel, a night of underage drinking at a boarding school in Vermont ends in disaster, resulting in a sex scandal that destroys several lives. Rumors start quickly because there is an explicit video of the incident.

The Naughtiest Girl in the School by Enid Blyton – for the #1940Club

Title: The Naughtiest Girl in the School
Author: Enid Blyton
Publication: Armada, paperback, 20p. Originally published in 1940.
Genre: School story
Setting: 20th century England

This week, Karen of Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Simon of Stuck in a Book are hosting the 1940 Club in which we all read and write about books published in the same year.

How to Be Brave, a modern school story by Daisy May Johnson

Title: How to Be Brave
Author: Daisy May Johnson
Publication: Henry Holt & Co., hardcover, 2021
Genre: Middle-grade fiction
Setting: 21st century England

Description: Elizabeth North survived the loss of her parents with the help of the Good Sisters at her boarding school and an obsessive interest in ducks.

The Lark in the Morn by Elfrida Vipont

Title: The Lark in the Morn (Haverard Family #1)
Author: Elfrida Vipont
Publication: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, hardcover, 1970 (original UK publication 1948)
Genre: Middle grade fiction/series

UK paperback edition

Six Degrees of Separation: From Masha to Hungry Monkey

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

Kate chose A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles as the starting book for September. I read this in 2018 with my book group and liked it even more than his first book (despite the use of the present tense which I dislike).  Our mothers were actually college classmates at Radcliffe.

Apples Every Day (Book Review) #1965Club

Title: Apples Every Day
Author: Grace Richardson
Publication: Harper & Row, 1965
Genre: Children’s Fiction, School Story

This was the cover on my sister's copy

Plot: This year there are several new students at Kenner, a modern, coed boarding school in Quebec – dismal Sheila whose recently remarried mother wants to be alone with her new husband; assured and conventional Jerry, determined not to fall behind academically just because attending class is optional; and Phil, who is miserable and runs away.

Boarding School (Book Review)

Title: Boarding School
Author: Regina Woody  Illustrator: Janet Kimball
Publication Information: Houghton Mifflin Company, hardcover, 1949
Genre: Juvenile Fiction/School Story

Plot: Having grown up in Europe, Abby Hawes is now ready for high school and has enrolled in the boarding school her mother once attended, Waban Hall Academy in Maine. Her year is full of academic challenge, basketball, ballet, new friends, and boarding school traditions that sometimes mystify Abby. She longs for a best friend she can trust but instead has an untrustworthy roommate and teachers who never seem to be looking out for her interests.

What I liked: As everyone knows, I love boarding school stories and had been curious about this one for some time. It seemed more realistic than many in the genre because of the emphasis on Abby’s academic struggles (unsurprising as she has not attended school before). Mrs. Woody also made sure the reader got a taste of all the traditions that make the school story genre so appealing: new girls, midnight feasts, girls going out of bounds, tricks (nice and not), teachers that see right through the students, trips to the infirmary, drama (not just the kind on stage), friendships, and finally a comeuppance for Abby’s rotten roommate. I’ve never come across this illustrator before but enjoyed her drawings.

What I disliked: Abby is so immature that it is hard to warm to her as a heroine. She’s always feeling sorry for herself, has little self-confidence due to a controlling mother, and for most of the book she is a victim to her nasty roommate (either too clueless or too honorable to tattle, even when accused of going to meet a strange boy in her nightgown). And she is so slow getting ready every morning! Oddly, the book had the feel of a sequel: the author referred to Abby’s family and friends as if the reader should know them. I wondered if there was yet another book by Woody I had missed. However, this one was not really worth the trouble I had gone to obtain it; it was pleasant but not incredibly memorable.

Source: Although I’d read Woody’s novels about aspiring dancers (including Ballet in the Barn, which Peter Sieruta once wrote about), I had never come across this book. Given my love of boarding school stories, I’d been interested for a while and was delighted when my library was able to obtain it via InterLibrary Loan. Thanks to the Boonslick Regional Library in Missouri for lending it halfway across the country.

Peggy Parsons at Prep School (Review)

Title: Peggy Parsons at Prep School
Author: Annabel Sharp

Publication Information: M.A. Donohue & Company, 1915

Genre: American Girls’ School Story

Plot:  Peggy is a vivid girl with brown-gold hair, laughing black eyes, and cheeks that are red through their tan.  She makes friends easily and loves a midnight feast and (although academics are rarely mentioned in such novels) at one point she writes an essay that is praised by her English teacher.  This is her first year at the Andrews and as an orphan she is dependent on the generosity of an aunt.  Peggy goes from one scrape to another, always running afoul of the stern headmistress, tossing a rosebush on a serenading Glee Club from prestigious Amherst College, spending so long primping that she is left behind from a school outing, and getting lost in a blizzard (see cover).  However, her kindness in visiting a lonely old gentlemen, presumed indigent by the neighborhood, results in a valuable friendship.  Naturally, once I knew that the old gentleman was estranged from his daughter and grandson, I expected Peggy would engineer a reunion and was not disappointed.

What I liked: The author manages to incorporate some delightful boarding school traditions in this book: handsome college men serenading dormitory rooms, bacon bats, theatre excursions, trips to dances at Annapolis, and best of all – fudge!

“Let’s have all the girls we can pack into the room in for a midnight celebration,” suggested Katherine as soon as they had flung off their coats in their own room.

“Good girl,” chirruped Peggy.  “About ten people – our most special own crowd.  Hurry up and be ready for dinner – and is there any butter out on the window ledge?
Katherine craned her eager head out of the window into the cold. “Not a bit,” she said.  “We have a can of condensed milk left, though.”

“Fine,” cried Peggy, counting off on her fingers the butter, the sugar, and the alcohol – “for I don’t think suppose there is any alcohol, is there, friend infant?”

“’Fraid not,” sighed Katherine.

From this an outsider might suppose that the girls were planning to concoct some sort of intoxicating beverage for their innocent little midnight party.  But it was only the preliminary preparation for the inevitable fudge.  And the alcohol was to run the chafing-dish, and not to go into it.

What I disliked: Alas, the book was very predictable and the characters were not well developed.  In addition, for a poor orphan Peggy was warm hearted but heedless, asking her aunt to send her to college regardless of expense.  She didn't do very much to earn her good fortune.

Sequel:  Peggy Parsons, A Hampton Freshman is available via Project Guttenberg

Source: I bought this book many years ago but I don’t remember where.  In addition to my long-standing interest in school stories, I was probably intrigued because my godmother’s name was Peggy Parsons.