The Places You Will Go

Dimsie Does It

Lucy Mangan's latest recommendation for books that make a good library is Dimsie Goes to School by Dorita Fairlie Bruce.

The only problem is that the book (and the others in the Dimsie series) are not easily available. Girls Gone By publishers (which Mangan wrote about in 2004) have re-issues of some titles by Bruce, but, so far, no Dimsies.

Readers can try secondhand stores but must be prepared to pay quite high prices.

I have all but one of the Dimsie books and plan to read them this year, but my must-read-in-2009 list is long and Dimsie is not a priority as I didn't enjoy Dimsie Goes to School when I first read it several years ago.

The End of an Odd Year

And then it was New Year's Eve!

Goodness, can you believe it will be 2009 tomorrow? What an odd year 2008 has been, for various reasons, but as I say in my column (out in StarMag this Sunday), it was a great reading year.

Over Christmas I read Summer's Ending by Helen McClelland, which was one of the books in the Christmas parcel from Helen. The book starts off in Penang, Malaya, which Helen thought might be interesting for me, and so it was!

The book is about two sisters. Margaret and Jean. It's 1939 and they live in Penang, in a big colonial-style house by the sea, with their parents. But this is just in the first couple of chapters. After that they are shipped off to boarding school in Surrey, England.

The boarding school is a convent. I have always enjoyed reading about convent schools (having been to two myself) and this one was very well portrayed, with lots of details about the school, how it's run, the nuns, and the students.

Although Frost in May, by Antonia White, is one of my favourite books set in a convent school, I dislike how grim the school (the Convent of the Five Wounds) in that book is and how strict the nuns are. The students seem almost to be bullied by the sisters in that book. The nuns at my two schools were mostly lovely so it was nice to read about kind nuns in Summer's Ending.

The book led me to do some research on the two convent schools I attended. I don't know why I never until now took the trouble to find out more about the orders that founded the schools. The first school, which I attended from age five til 11 was the Canossian Convent (motto: "Via, Veritas, Vita", which means "the way, the truth, the life", badge on the left), founded by the order of the Sisters of Conossa, an Italian order. The second school was a French convent, The Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (motto: "Simple dans ma virtue, forte dans moi devoir", which means "simple in virtue, steadfast in duty", badge right, read more about the history of the convent here). I was there from age 11 and a half til 17.

Of course, by the time I attended those schools, most of the teaching staff were not from the sisterhood. However, nuns still lived on the premises and I was taught by some (I still remember their names and what they looked like).

There were chapels in both schools (the one at the Canossian Convent was beautiful - I used to tiptoe in and wander around, completely spellbound) - crucifixes above the blackboards in all the classrooms (I believe these were removed in the 90s) and statues of Our Lady, the Virgin Mary. At the Canossian Convent, the statue was in a grotto in a garden on a little hill that you had to climb a long flight of uneven stone steps to reach. All this is now gone and the convents are more or less like any other school in Malaysia.

Oh, I have to add that the nuns at the Canossian Convent wore longer habits than the ones at CHIJ. I was quite surprised when I changed schools and first encountered CHIJ nuns and their legs! The skirts were virtually minis (well, not quite but compared to the skirts of the Canossian nuns, they were quite daring!). Also, the CHIJ nuns wore blouses with normal collars, whereas the Canossian nuns wore high collars - they looked a little like dog collars.

However, I found the Canossian Convent more relaxed, academically. At CHIJ the girls did nothing but swot and compare marks. I hated it and after my first month there, I faked apendicitis so I could skip school!

I Feel a Re-read Coming Up

I received an email this morning from Sarah Ebner, who writes The Times (London)'s Education blog, pointing me to her latest post, which lists her favourite boarding school books/series.

I'm taking the night train to Singapore tonight and will be reading End of Term by Antonia Forest in my bunk - it's my all-time favourite boading school book.

Of course I love ALL Forest's books, but this is my favourite of the four set in boarding school (Kingscote School). In this one, the Marlow sisters have just returned to school after the summer holidays, during which there were lots of developments including the family moving from London to stay in an inherited farm in the country; Nicola making friends with Patrick Merrick (the boy-next-door); and Rowan deciding to chuck school and run the farm, Trennels (all this is in Falconer's Lure, a non-school book about the Marlow family).

As it's the Christmas term at Kingscote, everyone is involved in some way or other with the Christmas play, which, unlike past terms, will be held at the cathedral. Naturally, there's a part Laurie would sell her soul to have. Nicola is, in the meantime, asked to sing a solo, while Tim is denied the chance to boss everyone around since it's a big production not a student effort unlike their first term's The Prince and the Pauper, which she adapted, produced and directed.

In this book Tim is more Laurie's friend than Nicola's. Laurie is being her self-absorbed, whiny self which gets on Nick's nerves. She leaves Tim to humour Laurie and becomes friendly with Miranda West, a brilliant and articulate classmate whose sense of humour and attitude to life matches Nicola's much better than anyone else's.

I really enjoy the descriptions of rehearsals for the play and the play itself - the interaction between students, and students and staff; the chaotic atmosphere at the cathedral during rehearsals; the harebrained schemes; the pettiness; the kindness of friends; and the casual, thoughtless cruelty that comes with apathy.

There are also a couple of conversations about religion (Christianity) that are hilarious thanks to Laurie's utter ignorance and the adults' incredulous and outraged responses. I love those scenes and sometimes just re-read those when I want a laugh.

I also like the chapter that describes Nicola and Patrick's ride, at half-term, across the downs to Wade Abbas (the cathedral city where the play will be performed). The ride back at night is very thrilling, what with Patrick reciting bits from the Lykewake Dirge (spooky!) and Browning's How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix - a very good poem to gallop to!

Can't wait to revisit End of Term on my train ride tonight!

Boarding School Days

I spent most of my time at 14 writing a boarding school novel. I wrote another one when I was 32. It was about Su Shan St Sebastien, a half-Malaysian 14-year-old, whose father enrols her in a prestigious boarding school in the English countryside. Su Shan's mother has died of cancer and her father (who divorced her mother when Su Shan was a baby) is a stranger to the girl.

At school, Su Shan meets her four half-sisters - two older and two younger than she, and each set of two by a different woman - their dad, it seems, is quite a serial monogamist. Su Shan adapts easily to life at boarding school thanks to her friendly, helpful, supportive sisters and her new best friends - Magda, who happens to be a famous model when she's not at school; and Janferie, whose mother is a fashion designer!

Su Shan even meets and falls in love with a rock star. And is loved in return! Yes, it's pure fantasy, and that's really the whole point of boarding school stories, rather like romance novels and thrillers.

I would most dearly like to write a sequel. Unfortunately, I am already juggling half-a-dozen projects so Su Shan St Sebastien's adventures at Marchmere School for Girls and as the girlfriend of a famous rock star will have to wait.

After Harry

Yes, there is life after Harry Potter ...

Kids with Views

I've chosen to read The View from Saturday, by E. L. Konigsburg, with a new English language tuition student.

I started a re-read last night and was done a couple of hours ago. It's as enjoyable as I remember it - from way back when.

Four slightly unconventional sixth graders become friends and are chosen to represent their school in a general knowledge competition.

The kids (Noah, Nadia, Ethan and Julian), who call themselves The Souls, take turns to tell the reader about themselves and the events that lead up to them becoming chums and being chosen to be on the school team.

They are good kids - interesting, amusing, smart and kind.

The book mentions how most students are no longer curious. Instead of saying "Now what?" they say "So what?"

Konigsburg wrote Saturday in 1996. I wonder what she makes of things now. My own students are mostly apathetic. They are bored and think there is nothing new or wonderful in this world. There are exceptions. Well, I have one student who seems to care and wonder. And she loves to read.

I also have a student who thought the United Kingdom was in America and had no idea where Venice was.

Saturday talks about turtles, Alice in Wonderland, feminism and calligraphy. The Souls ask questions, dream dreams, plan projects and make a difference. I hope my student will be inspired although he may, initially, feel he is reading about aliens.

The View from Saturday won the 1997 Newberry Medal.

Mini Review: Totto-Chan

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window

By Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

Translated by Dorothy Britton

Illustrated by Chihiro Iwasaki

Publisher: Kodansha Europe

This is my first Japanese children's book, recommended to me by my bookseller friend, Kit, when she found out that I was trying to read more Japanese fiction.

However, it's actually not a work of fiction, but based on the childhood of its author (a popular Japanese actress, author and talk-show host, philanthropist, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and WWF-Japan director), focusing specifically on her experiences as a student at Tomoe Gaukuen, an experimental school in Tokyo, Japan.

The school was founded by one Sosaku Kobayashi who obviously loved children and had unique ideas about how they should be raised and enducated.

Reading about the school, I was filled with envy and longing. Tomoe no longer exists, but educators can learn much from its example.

The book describes Totto-Chan's adventures as a curious, imaginative little girl. She is deemed "impossible" by the teachers in her first school and is expelled, but Kobayashi welcomes her with open arms, and, for Totto, Tomoe is a dream come true, a place where she is allowed to achieve her fullest potential and given the freedom to explore her suroundings and express herself to her heart's content.

If only schools like that existed today. I'd enrol my kids in a flash.

Totto-Chan is broken up into very short chapters, each one relating a short incident or commenting on an interesting aspect of the school or Totto's life and upbringing. It's an easy read - simple, unaffected and charming - and also rather funny.

Totto and her classmates are cute, but the hero of the book is, without a doubt, Kobayashi who was ever optimistic and always ready to see the good in every child.

For more info on Kuroyanagi, read Wikipedia's entry.

Jolly Hockey Sticks!

Links to the websites of the authors mentioned in my Tots to Teens story A Genre for Girls can be found in the Storybook People sidebar of this blog. These links will tell you everything you need to know about the authors and their books.

If you're interested in purchasing girlsown books that are out-of-print (most are), try searching for them at the Bookfinder website. You can also try your luck with Girls Gone By Publishers, an independent concern that re-publishes out-of-print girlown novels. At GGB, you will also find links to other bookdealers who sell girlsown novels.   

Last but not least, the Girlsown mailing list is very useful and a lot of fun for anyone who is a fan of the genre. To find out more, check out its FAQ pages.

Mini Review: Curtain Up

Title: Curtain Up aka Theatre Shoes

Author: Noel Streatfield

Publisher: Random House

Where I Bought This Book: At the Student’s Service Centre in Batu Pahat, Johore, in 1979! My edition is, IIRC, published by Dolphin Books. The cover is red and shows a backstage scene.

Main Characters:
1. Sorrel
2. Mark
3. Holly

What It’s All About: It’s the Second World War and the Forbes children receive word that their father, a sailor with the Royal Navy, is missing in action. They are sent to live with their maternal grandmother who is head of a famous theatrical family. Sorrel, Mark and Holly are expected to be talented and are enrolled in a school for dramatic arts, incidentally the same school that the Fossil children attend in Ballet Shoes. The book describes the children’s life with their grandmother, how they adjust to their new school, how they interact with their cousins, and how they take to being part of a theatrical family and cope with their own talent.

What I like About It: I like that we get a peek at how things are with the Fossils (the Forbes receive scholarships from Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil, and communicate with them through letters). I also really enjoy reading about “Grandmother” who is this fascinating and rather domineering, larger-than-life character. Best of all are the detailed descriptions of the children's school, dress rehearsals and performances. And I love the way Sorrel develops and blossoms as an actress.

Other Books I’ve Read by the Same Author: See My Favourite Streatfields.

If You Like The Sound of this Book, You Should Also Check Out These Titles:
1. Ballet Shoes, also by NS
2. Lorna Hill's ballet books

Name of Reviewer: Daphne Lee

Send in a Mini Review by filling out the form (Download mini_review_form.doc) and emailing it to me.