First Term at Malory Towers (1946)

As with a few other books I've reviewed before, I'm rating this with the feelings I had for it at the time, not by any means an objective judgement on it as an adult! I used to devour Enid Blyton's work, despite being aware of the at times icky implications (racism, Anglo-centrism, sexism, classism, etc). There was something about it, something nostalgic. It was a midnight feast in its own way.

Anyway, Darryl was probably my favourite of all Blyton's schoolgirls. I don't remember much about it now, to be honest -- I remember her violent temper, and the way all the girls have things they must overcome and so on, but I don't remember specifics. I can't remember if they were particularly prone to playing pranks in this series, or if that was mostly in others... ( )

i didnt particulaly like this book and the writing was to small so it was hard to read ( )

It's too bad I didn't discover this series of books until now. My girls would have loved them when they were little. One of their favorite games to play together was Boarding House (frequent viewings of A Little Princess). It was fun to read about it - it really reminded me of Hogwarts. But as a parent, it just makes me think about how horrible it would be to send your 12 year old off to have someone else raise her. How did they do that? How do they still do that? It's just so against everything I feel about parenting. But a fun, easy read. ( )

Lots of fun, with optimistic story lines and likable characters. A real comfort read. ( )

As an only child, I absolutely loved the idea of an English boarding school as created in these books - I would have been horrified if my parents would have sent me to a Belgian "internaat" ruled by nuns. My paperback of these "Pitty" books were falling apart and I got rid of them in my twenties, but I would love to reread them. So I bought one recently and was very surprised by how goody-goody these stories are. Very light reading indeed, even for 12-year olds.” ( )