Summer Term at the Chalet School

I just finished this new offering from GGBP- turns out is is one of the few CS books I don't have in the Armada paperback edition so I've never read it before. Frankly, I wasn't that impressed; if I didn't know better, I would think this was mediocre fanfic rather than part of the original canon. I mean, I appreciated the insights into Joey and Robin's trip somewhat mythic trip to India, but another random person wills their kid to Joey even though they haven't been in touch for years? What if Joey had tragically died in the war or something? How on earth can all these people just decide Joey is the right person to raise their soon-to-be orphaned children? And the whole train accident where of course Joey ends up with yet another child to add to the family? sigh....

I have to say I was really disappointed in this book, and it made me kind of sad, wondering if the other books really aren't that great and it is just nostalgia that makes me love them. Then I reread Head Girl of the Chalet School and thought it was great, so I guess it is just Summer Term that I don't like...

Anyone else have a ho-hum reaction to this late entry into the series?

I can't remember many details from Summer Term at the Chalet School, but some are certainly better than others. Redheads at the Chalet School was definitely over-the-top.

The books that bug me are the ones that seem to just be fillers. No real character development, endless descriptions of plays and sales.

I would agree that Summer Term is one of the weaker entries in the series, and the later books in general are not as good as the earlier titles. I agree, it is a bit ridiculous that all these girls end up being part of Joey's family, and even more so that most of them turn out to be related to her in some way. I'm glad that Head Girl still kept its magic for you; IMO the Tyrol and British books are some of the best school stories out there.

Sylvia, Redheads is rather OTT, but I still enjoyed it because in terms of the plot it was a total departure from the "troublesome new girl - natural disaster - sale/play" rut that the series had got into by then.

>3 Sakerfalcon: That's true about Redheads. It certainly is more memorable than a lot of them.

It is hard to believe that so many stray kids join Jo's and Madge's families. And some of those kids are hardly heard of again. You would think that if they've become family members, they would have bigger roles in the series.

I think that by this stage in the series the cast of characters was so huge that there was no way each one could be given the page time they deserve. It's the same with the troublesome new girls - even those who get a book named after them like Richenda fade into the background in subsequent books. One of the biggest disappointments for me of the later books is that all the main characters are British, unlike in the early books where Frieda, Simone, Giesela, Evadne, etc all had major roles to play. It is understandable in the books set in wartime Britain but once the school moves to Switzerland and has an international intake again I'd have liked to see more of the non-British girls.

Agree with all of this thread. But...it's still compelling to read the later books just because you have so much invested in the characters that you're keen to see more of them

>6 mrsvjdw: That is very true!

>6 mrsvjdw: Yes, a friend and I were discussing this yesterday and agreed that if the first Chalet book you read was a late one you probably wouldn't want to continue with the series. But to those of us who've followed the characters and the school for so long, there are still nuggets of goodness in even the poorer books.

I'm reading through the series and have got to the Swiss books. This is my least favourite era and the books do get 'samey' and fomulaic but there are also forgotten nuggets that surface so I always end thinking that each book has something in it to make it worth reading.

Yeah I was always sad that the second generation of the international crew never got much airtime. Shouldn't Frieda/Simone/Maria/Veta's kids have been a focal point rather than just side characters? A real missed opportunity in my opinion.