| Title | : | First Term at Malory Towers (Malory Towers, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0749744812 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780749744816 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 160 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1946 |
First Term at Malory Towers (Malory Towers, #1) Reviews
-
My mother was 3 years old when this book came out in 1946. Her copy was on my shelf as a child and after reading 20 or so Famous Five books I reluctantly picked it up, trusting Blyton to make even a girls' school interesting. I have vague memories of thinking it was OK.
I got my daughter Celyn the books on CD and she adores them. She has listened to them dozens of times.
The basic formula is posh girls being mean to each other at boarding school.
This book combined with The Worst Witch will give you the foundation of Harry Potter.
The girls take a train to Malory Towers at the start of term, making friends and enemies on the way. They're sorted into four houses then sent to sleep in one of four towers.
High jinx include pranking French teachers (with unconvincing accents), spiders in desks, duckings/semi-drownings, malicious damage to property and all the other things that provide suitable fresh blood for the British upper classes.
There's also a line in practical jokes on the teachers, involving implausible joke-shop purchases and Blyton's enduring failure to understand the limitations of magnets.
Much of it seems rather heartless, but then I guess that's a fair representation of many interactions between school children.
I can't deny that elements of my book Red Sister draw on the Malory Towers vibe. I have in the past described it as "Malory Towers with knives", though really of course the similarities are fleeting at best.
Join my Patreon
Join my 3-emails-a-year newsletter #prizes
. -
Read this as part of 2018 Ultimate Reading Challenge, Category: "A book you read in school".
There are some books that you read when you are young and these books are part of your formative years of reading. And sometimes you maybe scared to pick such a book again because you are scared that the book will not live up to your memories....
I was very excited and nervous at the same time while starting this book and I am glad that I read this once again. This book did make me re-visit all the things I felt when I read this in school. I can still see myself sitting in my minds eye reading this during library hours.
This book is a splendid introduction that starts off with Darrell joining Malory Towers for her first term, making some great friends and a rivalry that may go on for sometime at-least. It's filled with antics and anti-dotes that the girls get up to and it kept me turning the pages.
This is one of those books that glorified life in a boarding school for me. I remember 3 of my cousins studied in boarding school when I first read this book and I imagined them living a life like that in Malory Towers. I begged my mom that I too wanted to join that boarding school (which never did happen).
Least to say I will definitely be re-visiting this full series once again! -
This was a lovely, nostalgic journey for me, back at Malory Towers. I remember checking these books out of the library with my Dad on a Saturday, back when I wasn't as old as I am now. Enid Blyton had such a talent, and I don't think she has ever disappointed.
It's funny that now I'm older, I see things in a different light, such as, the characters. They are all a particular "type" of person, and that is immediately apparent. Also, the plot itself is fairly predictable. These are not negative aspects, but I just thought I'd mention them.
I liked the escapades that the girls get into, and how surprised I was at the sympathy I felt towards the bad girl, which was more than I felt when I first read this.
This book is old fashioned, and really rather twee, but if you're an Enid Blyton fan, you'll know what to expect, and it will not disappoint. -
one of my favorite MG series when i was younger. i really need to reread it again 💓
-
I was fortunate to find out about this series (this is the first book in a 6 book series) because of one Goodreads friend, and thanks to another Goodreads friend was able to purchase the six book series for less than the cost of mailing. I’m really happy to have them. It’s going to take some discipline on my part to wait to read the next five until I’ve read some other books further up in my queue.
I guess the plot was formulaic and the girls were all a “type” but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It felt like a short vacation back to childhood and it was a really fun read.
I would have adored this book when I was a child. I certainly was not as cheerful as the main heroine but did enjoy reading about those cheerful girls, and there are girls with all sorts of personalities and all sorts of strengths and weaknesses who make up the cast of characters and they’re interesting to get to know.
As an adult I saw almost everything coming but I didn’t mind one bit.
I admit I did feel sympathy for the “bad” girl, more than I probably would have had I read these first as a child.
The book is very British and somewhat old fashioned (it was first published in 1946) but I think it can be easily enjoyed today with those caveats kept in mind. -
Such a comforting nostalgic trip down memory lane. I loved loved loved this series as a child. As a family we didn’t have much money for books and one year I was given the box set of the Mallory Towers series. I was so thrilled and goodness knows how many times I read them. Who wouldn’t want to swim in that sea water pool?
-
As I am trying to write a story set @ a school, I turn to the classics to reacquaint myself with the artistic & moral values inherent in the genre. First Term @ Malory Towers is a spare book & a quick read (tho’ I read it slowly in bits & pieces) but it contains all the essentials. Darrell is a new girl in the first form (like 7th grade in America). She makes new friends, finds out some of her own flaws - a hot temper & a tendency to slack off on her schoolwork - confronts Gwendoline, a mean girl, & rescues a weaker girl from a false friend & from her own fears. We learn deception & trickery are praiseworthy when used for good; in this case to help the timid Mary-Lou discover her inner strengths. She uses her newly found courage to extricate Darrell from Gwendoline’s wicked scheme. A slight story, but teaching excellent lessons.
The new girls are received by the headmistress, who tells them: ‘One day you will leave school & go out into the world as young women. You should take with you eager minds, kind hearts, & the will to help. You should take with you a good understanding of many things & a willingness to accept responsibility & a willingness to show yourselves as women to be loved & trusted. All these things you will be able to learn @ Malory Towers - if you will. I do not count as our successes those who have won scholarships & passed exams, tho’ these are good things to do. I count as our successes those who learn to be good-hearted & kind, sensible & trustable, good sound women the world can lean on. Our failures are those who do not learn thee things in the years they are here.’
The head understands that the school really exists to provide a formation as well as an education (‘scholarships & pass[ing] exams’), to provide each student with a special kind of character - ‘good-hearted & kind, sensible & trustable’. This is such a refreshing alternative to current obsessions with ‘league-tables’ & ‘A-level results’: social cachet & what make of motor car the mums @ the school-gate drive as well as the Guardianistas’ obsession with the diversity & multiculturalism only a state school can offer.
Finally, as the girls wonder whether the horrible Gwendoline is redeemable, Katherine (‘the head of the dormy’) remarks: ‘It depends on how long she stays @ Malory towers. It’s funny how the longer you stay here the decenter you get. That’s what my aunt told me. She came here too, & she told me all kinds of stories about awful girls who got all right!’ I own three more books in the series to find out whether Gwendoline gets all right but it may be a while before I find out. In the meantime, I’ll endeavour to be ‘good-hearted & kind, sensible & trustable’ too. -
Very much unlike Pat and Isabel O’Sullivan (who in Enid Blyton’s The Twins at St. Clare’s really do not at all want to attend St. Clare’s at first and are determined to hate everyone and everything and only very slowly but thankfully surely are shown to change their minds) in the author’s first instalment of her Malory Towers series, in First Term at Malory Towers, main protagonist Darrell Rivers is indeed and from square one so to speak totally and utterly thrilled with attending boarding school and more than willing to wholeheartedly enjoy all that Malory Towers has to offer, from its classes to swimming and games. And while Darrell Rivers does thus and in a way totally represent the eponymous best type of school girl stereotype, there is still enough personality in her, including the recurring issues Darrell seems to have with her sometimes explosive temper, to render her into a delightfully relatable character and fortunately not just someone who can somehow do no wrong (since Enid Blyton really does very majorly focus on Darrell Rivers throughout First Term at Malory Towers and having her appear as a quasi Little Miss Perfect could soon prove majorly tedious).
However, while I have certainly enjoyed Darrell Rivers as a character, I have also not quite liked and appreciated my first sojourn into Enid Blyton’s Mallory Towers universe quite as much as especially the first novel of her St. Clare’s series. For while in The Twins at St. Clare’s, most of the presented characters are not only types but also have (at least in my opinion) vestiges of showing their own and distinct personalities, in First Term at Malory Towers, except for Darrell Rivers, all of her first form classmates usually seem so staunchly typecast that reading about them really does tend to sometimes drag a bit (although yes, Sally Hope thankfully morphs into a much more nuanced individual after her appendicitis and after she no longer is jealous of her baby sister Daphne), and not to mention that I for one also do seem to find most of the teachers, most of the form mistresses considerably more positively and interestingly depicted in The Twins at St. Clare’s than in First Term at Malory Towers (and yes, I do hope that this changes as the series progresses, that in the later Malory Towers novels, Enid Blyton might give more textual oomph to her teachers and yes, that she will hopefully also make both spoilt rotten whiner Gwendoline Lacey and hard hearted joker Alicia Johns just a trifle less annoying and one-sided, although I will also and of course not be holding my proverbial breath with regard to this). -
I know I am not the only one whose love of boarding school stories began with this series! I embraced Darrell and Sally and their adventures at Malory Towers, despite their anti-American bias, and longed for midnight feasts, adventures in field hockey, uniforms, and tuck boxes. In fact, my sister and I used to play "boarding school," (we also played "orphans," which my mother found very amusing) wearing black skirts, white shirts and black velvet ties around our necks. My mother had Blyton's Adventure series growing up, but the school stories were less common in the US. I think we found the first Malory Towers and St. Clare's books in Toronto.
-
These books may be short but they are so sweet and innocent; I really enjoyed reading this book.
-
For my full review, visit me at
https://mrsbrownsbooks.wordpress.com/...
This book has been on my bookcase for many, many years… we are talking more than one decade by now! The series has travelled many miles and has been read so often. I don’t think I could ever part with it. Thankful to my mum for introducing it to me when I was a little girl, you can’t even begin to imagine how chuffed I was that my daughter wanted to read the series too. So, we embarked on the journey together: me, revisiting the story after last reading quite a while ago, whilst at the same time seeing it through my daughter’s fresh eyes, with excitement and interest.
For my full review, visit me at
https://mrsbrownsbooks.wordpress.com/... -
This was my childhood! Amazing story full of friendship, gossip, and smiles. I should re-read this soon...
-
Having grown up in the US, I missed Enid Blyton. I don't know if I would have liked her stuff--at this age I find it much of a muchness, but as I was obsessed with all things English at the time I probably would have eaten it up. Being dangerously close to a reading slump, I decided to give the old school stories a run, and I enjoyed this one.
The description of the "nice looking" uniform made me laugh--all brown and orange, two colours I dislike, particularly together! But I guess it's better than the standard navy blue and white with touches of red. I like the fact that Darrell has an unusual name and an unpredictable temper, and can't find a special friend the minute she walks in the door. She's much more normal than some of the boarding-school instaqueens that populate other authors. Blyton also includes believable background characters: Mummy's spoiled darling, a sneak and liar, a kid who's afraid of everything, and the clamshell kid who not only has no friends, she doesn't appear to want any. The prefects sort out any conflicts without running to the teachers; the worst punishment is being isolated by your form mates.
Published in 1946, but feels earlier. There's no mention of the war just finished, apart from a couple of parents saying "we must live more simply now" with no mention of why (ie the fierce rationing and unavailability of the most basic products). There's a definite feeling of Angela Brazil's 1920s England with its abundant strawberries and cream and buns. I had a slight deja vu feeling, as if I'd read this, or at least started it, before, but then I realised that Blyton recycled a few phrases and paragraphs (particularly describing the dorms) word-for-word from one book to another.
There's not as much emphasis on needlework and long walks as in the Chalet School books by Elinor Dyer, and no need for hair-breadth 'scapes--unless you count the spider!
A good bedtime read. -
As a child, I only had the Malory Towers books of years 2, 5, and 6. In the Fifth at Malory Towers was my favourite, but I had always wanted to read the others to get a complete picture. I read the missing books a few years ago, but not really in sequence. Well, this is my opportunity!
The heroine of this series is Darrel Rivers, a hot-tempered and honest girl who is good at writing. The other main characters are:
Sally Hope: a quiet, steady girl whose only real role is to be best friend to Darrel
Alicia Johns: mischievous, naughty, intelligent, but with a hard streak
Mary-Lou: a quiet, shy girl with no character whatsoever
Irene & Belinda: scatter-brained, brilliant in music and art respectively
Gwendoline Lacey: spoilt girl with issues that nobody gives a shit about!
I must say that I have always felt for Gwendoline. She was spoilt, yes, indeed, but that's not her fault. The girls bully her on arrival because they caught her crying to be parting from her mother. Huh?! The girl is twelve years old! I am more concerned why the others are not more upset at parting from their parents for the first time!! Gwen's mother is often blamed for her being spoilt (probably was!) but frankly, her father did not appear to be the best example of child rearing either!
The book covers one term of the first year in school for Darrel, Sally, and Gwendoline. They settle in slowly. Sally gets an interesting story for the probably the only time in the series. Plenty of things happen, but somehow many of the plots centre around Gwen. Frustrated with everyone bullying her, she bullies the only one she could: Mary-Lou. Darrel rages and slaps her. Suddenly, Gwen becomes the villain! The spin on this by Blyton is dizzying!
Decent first book, sets the tone for the series. The characters aren't yet settled into the routine, so I'll be happy to read the next book. -
I grew up with these: I literally wore out my grandmother’s paperback copies (they are now held together with scotch tape). I got a set of all six for myself and reread a few weeks back. I’m never going to be able to view them dispassionately - these are classic British boarding school stories, and they’ll always have a special place in my heart - and so I’m writing this to note something:
The recent reprint is edited. Darrell slaps someone in her first term. The slap was loud and it echoed around the pool. It left marks! It was unacceptable and kind of shocking to read about! …And now in the reprint she shakes someone, and all those repercussions are edited out. The impact just isn’t the same.
I’d love to know more about this: who made this decision? Did they have to get permission from Blyton’s estate? Why did they think it was a good idea? Have times changed so much? Have kids changed so much? I was a horrified little kid when I first read this, and in no way did I think it was a good idea, or that the text recommended it. I hope this wasn’t a “think of the children!” decision - the children can think on their own.
Maybe I’m wrong: maybe I’m judging the impact based on what it could have been, what it was for me. Maybe kids reading this now, for the first time, will have the same feelings reading about the shaking that I did reading about the slap. Maybe my doubt is entirely based on nostalgia…
It’s noteworthy, is all I’m saying. -
This is definitely a book written back when "bullying" was a normal thing to do. Like, C'mon! Just because someone is home-schooled, clingy to her mother, afraid of swimming, that does not necessarily mean that everyone has to dislike this girl right away and make her life hell throughout the school year.
The book is supposed to be about the adventures of the main character, Darell Rivers, but it is pretty much based on mocking and bullying peers. Totally disliked the theme and not planning to go through the other books in the series later. -
Originally published in 1946, this first entry in Enid Blyton's immensely popular six-book Malory Towers series - which follows its heroine, Darrell Rivers, through her years at a boarding school in Cornwall - seems to include many of the characters and plot devices that have come to be so closely associated - almost to the point of cliche - with the girls' school-story genre.
In Darrell herself, we have the eager new girl - enthusiastic, good-hearted, determined to be a credit to her school - who (as is evident from the start) is the "right sort." The mischievous prankster, Alicia Johns, who is the heroine's first choice as friend; the snobby spoiled girl, Gwendoline Lacey, with whom the heroine clashes; the terribly shy "mouse" of a girl, Mary Lou, who worships the heroine; and the inexplicably hostile girl, Sally Hope, who ends up being very important to the heroine indeed, are all examples of "types" that should be quite familiar, even to readers who have only encountered a few such novels. The form head-girl, who has a quiet, natural authority; the clever, but absent-minded scholar; and the Scots girl who is good with money (groan!), all also appear in First Term at Malory Towers.
Just as many of the characters will be familiar to the reader, so too will some of the events. The (rather tame) pranks that Alicia plays on the teachers, Darrell's academic slip-up, the rivalries amongst the girls, Mary Lou's unexpected bravery, the misunderstanding concerning Sally's illness, and the false accusation against Darrell, in the matter of Mary Lou's fountain pen, are all thrown together in a story that felt rather formulaic. Worse, Blyton's tone can sometimes veer into the moralistic, as with Darrell's excessive self condemnation, when she loses her temper. I couldn't help comparing this with the more natural depiction of girlhood conflict provided by Evelyn Smith, in books such as
Seven Sisters at Queen Anne’s.
No doubt I'm being unfair. Smith is a brilliant (if largely forgotten) author, not in the same class as Blyton at all. And this was an entertaining book, even if I could see all the developments coming from a mile off. Perhaps my friend - who commented that it was a shame I'd started the genre with the best authors (
Joanna Lloyd,
Antonia Forest,
Evelyn Smith), as some of the more well-known series would be spoiled for me - was right. Or perhaps I'm just not meant to be a fan, despite my recent "Blyton Project." Still, I'll undoubtedly keep reading - the series is bound to improve, no...? -
با وجودی که تو نوجوانی خواندمش که با 99 درصد کتابها ارتباط برقرار می کردم و دنبال چیزی به نام "منطق"در کتابها نبودم،باز هم برایم اعصاب خردکن بود.اصولا دنیای دخترمدرسه ای ها را دوست ندارم.آدم هایی که-عموما-لوس و بی منطق اند و البته، همیشه خودشان را بی نهایت جذاب و پرجنب و جوش تصور می کنند.این کتاب هم پر از دخترهای اینجوری است.دخترهای "مثلا" باهوش و خوشگلی که یک سال تحصیلی"پرهیجان"را می گذرانند.خودم دانش آموز بودم که خواندمش ولی چی بوده که همان موقع هم برایم نفرت انگیز و اغراق آمیز بود!
فقط یک دختر لوس موطلایی بود که هیچ دوستی نداشت و همه اش دردسر درست می کرد فقط از آن خوشم می آید چون لااقل مابه ازای بیرونی داشت!
معلم های فهیم و خوش اخلاق و مدیرهایی که دانش آموزها را از جانشان هم بیشتر دوست دارند و درس های آسان و خلاصه همه چیز دلچسب و خوب.آیا این چیزی است که ما از مدرسه هایمان به یاد داریم؟و اگر در واقعیت اینطور نیست،علت خلق این همه کتاب و داستان با توصیفات دروغین از مدرسه چیست؟ آیا نویسنده ها مدرسه نرفتند یا این سیاستی است برای علاقمند کردن بچه ها به مدرسه؟
کلا داستان من و انید بلایتون داستان قشنگی نیست!اصلا از شخصیتهای اغراق شده اش خوشم نمی آید. -
Reading First term at Malory towers was full of nostalgia. I didn't remember the story at all except knowing that it had been about a boarding school. Going through the pages living the new student life with Darrell, making new trustworthy friends was an experience in itself. I felt like I had started my first day at school with her, I wanted to impress the popular girls in my form and I got angry at Gwendoline for being so mean.
I always wished to live in a hostel or a boarding school but never had that chance so it was rewarding to live such an experience through Blyton's writing. I still love the story as I first read it in grade 6 or 7 after so many years. The characters still became my friends, and enemies. Enid Blyton's books made me fall in love with reading and they still warm my heart. -
Oh what a wonderful book this was - I read it when I was about six and I remember diving into this world of boarding schools and starchy school mistresses.
I was spirited away from the comfort of my bedroom into corridors, classrooms and crazy characters whom I longed to meet and make friends with.
Loved reading this and I remember it still, many years later. -
I listened to this as an audio book. First term at Mallory Towers was about a girl called Darryl who was about to start Malory Towers. Darryl has a hot temper but she is kind hearted and loyal to her friends. Meet Darryl, Sally and Mary-Loo for a walk down memory lane.
-
Loved it!!!
-
This whole series was my ABSOLUTE favourite as a child
-
First Term at Malory Towers is the first of six Malory Towers books by Enid Blyton. Malory Towers is the third school series written by Blyton, and was started the year after she finished the St Clare’s series. Malory Towers was inspired by Blyton’s oldest daughter Gillian going to boarding school.
In the books we follow the heroine, Darrell Rivers, through her school life which include her ups and downs, friends and enemies. It has to be my favourite school series and has always made me want to attend Malory Towers.
We meet an excited Darrell ready to set off to school in her brand new uniform. It’s nice to have a book start with someone being excited to go off to school and even though the idea of a brown and orange uniform sounds quite unappealing, I do think it could look very nice if matched properly.
We follow Darrell from her home to the station to catch the train for Cornwall, where Malory Towers is located. Naturally Darrell is nervous about her new school, wondering what it will be like and if she’ll make friends. Blyton makes it very easy for the reader to relate to Darrell from the beginning, and these nerves that Darrell experience make her more human. The fun really begins when Darrell is plunged into the world of Malory Towers at the station. First she is introduced to the sensible Miss Potts who is to be her form mistress and head of North Tower where Darrell is to sleep.
From the formidable Miss Potts we are then introduced to Alicia Johns, a girl in Darrell’s form who has been at Malory Towers for some time (though we are not told how many terms Alicia has been at the school). Darrell takes an instant liking to Alicia, hoping that this older girl will be her special friend.
Alicia comes across as a hard character from the start and I’ve always wondered why Darrell so wants her as a friend when it’s easy for the reader identify her as a a class clown and a bit of a bully. Alicia does get a little better, but I’ve never really ‘warmed’ to Alicia or understood why you would want her as friend. She reminds me of the ‘popular’ girls at school who would bully you without a thought to your feelings if you got on their wrong side.
Gwendoline Lacey is also a new girl, however she has none of the characteristics Darrell has which make her so instantly likeable. Gwendoline is painted as a cry baby, spoilt and worst of all in the sporty world of Malory Towers, overweight. The girls don’t make Gwendoline’s life easy, and Alicia especially says some quite spiteful things to Gwendoline over the course of the book.
The only other new girl to join them is quiet Sally Hope who seems the complete opposite to everyone else in the train carriage.
So on to Malory Towers, with its four towers North, South, East and West which hold the girls’ dormitories and common rooms. Darrell, Sally and Gwendoline are all in North Tower together, with a stern matron and Miss Potts to keep an eye on
The term begins quite calmly with lots of fun but hard work as well. Alicia plays a trick where she pretends to be deaf to tease Mam’zelle Dupont but it backfires when Miss Potts discovers the trick, and later on in the story (but I won’t give that away!).
Soon Gwendoline’s spiteful nature becomes apparent, as she starts being mean towards the smallest member of the form, Mary-Lou, and playing nasty tricks on her. The tricks escalate after Darrell snaps at Mary-Lou for following her around. Gwendoline’s truly spiteful nature shows just how wicked a person can be, especially to vulnerable younger girls.
Darrell also behaves appallingly towards Mary-Lou at the beginning of the book, and she doesn’t seem to realise that she’s almost as bad as Gwendoline in that respect. After Sally’s illness, when she explains to Darrell that she’s been trying to buck Mary-Lou up the wrong way, Darrell’s whole attitude towards Mary-Lou does suddenly seem to do a complete 180 degree turn.
The real drama starts during half term weekend, when Darrell’s parents come to see her, and her mother spots Sally Hope in the distance and would like to have a word with her because she knows Sally’s mother. Sally behaves quite rudely towards Darrell, insulting her parents when Darrell tries to give Sally the message, and Darrell’s temper gets the better of her. She sends Sally flying across the room, and causes her great pain. I shan’t give away what the cause is, you’ll have to read it yourself to find out!
Sally’s brief illness acts as a catalyst for a complete change of character. After being a very closed off character who often fades into the background, Sally’s persona changes and she becomes a very lovely person very quickly and she becomes like an open flower instead of a closed one. The new Sally is instantly likeable. I think you see more of Sally’s personality in those last few chapters than you ever do in the rest of the books, except in the 3rd form where Sally’s jealousy gets the better of her, but at the same time she does fade into the background a lot of the time.
I hope I haven’t given too much away from First Form at Malory Towers, but I don’t want to ruin the book for you. Personally I love this book. The ups and the downs of the term make it such a thrilling read, for instance when Darrell is nicer to Mary-Lou and the spiteful tricks Gwendoline plays.
If you like Blyton’s other school series, Malory Towers is one not to miss. Trust me, you won’t regret picking up these gorgeous books! -
A book filled with mischief from what the girls at Malory towers get up to! A girl called Darrell arrives at Malory towers to board. The story is mostly about her settling into her new school. She experiences making new friends and getting up to mischief to trick some teachers. However, she also finds herself getting into some not so nice situations. A girl falls ill with appendicitis, and Darrell thinks it is her fault because she pushed her. Darrell also learns that she needs to control her temper at times. At the end of the story Darrell finds herself involved in an investigation to find out who smashed one of her friend’s pens. Her and her friends eventually find the culprit who was trying to make out it was someone else. It just shows the truth always comes out.
-
Storyline
First Term at Malory Towers is the first book in the Malory Towers series. Darrell is going to her new boarding school, and is very excited, but nervous, too! But when she gets to the train station and finds out that a girl called Alicia is looking after her,she feels that she has a friend, already! But can Darrell keep a lid on her temper?
Comment
This is a really good book! It's very enjoyable, and also makes you want to read on-- it is full of suspicion! For example, I would think I will just read to the end of this chapter, but then I will stop for now, but I would find myself reading much more chapters because of how good it is!
Rating
I rated this book four stars because of how gripping and exciting it is, but also because of how it fills you with suspense! You wonder at the end of each chapter what is going to happen next? , so you find yourself whizzing through the book!
Age Group
I think that the best age group for this book is 7+, as I think that it would be very nice to read for the older children. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!
My Favourite Character
I think that my favourite character is Mary-Lou, who is the youngest in the year. She might be very scared of most things in the world (even earwigs and water!), but inside, she is a very kind and generous person, who can learn to shine.
Suggestion to the Author
All I can say to the author is her work was amazing, and she is very much appreciated by children and other authors, including me!
Faye xx -
this is the series i practically grew up with...
klo anak2 jaman sekarang mulai dengan harry potter, i started my avid reading habit dengan buku2 tulisan ms. blyton... dan malory towers adalah yang terbaik!!!
buku inilah yang pertama kali bikin aku bermimpi... waktu itu sih mimpinya pengen sekolah di sekolah asrama... mimpi yang ga' tercapai karena apparently - according to my parents - sekolah berasrama di indonesia ga' seperti di inggris (ya iyalaaaaah)...
lalu buku ini juga yang pertama kali memperkenalkan aku pada konsep "sahabat", that walopun bisa saja ada banyak teman yang cocok dan akrab dengan kita, "sahabat" paling banyak hanya bisa sejumlah jari sebelah tangan (not that the books said it explicitly, but only as i wanted to believe hehehehe)... akibatnya? bisa di tebak, i grew up quite unsociable hhhohohohohoh (not that i mind), partly karna "salah nangkep" isi buku ini, setangahnya lagi karna sangking kutu bukunya aku emang jadi ga' gaul... -
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...
