REREADING: Princess Charming
Aug. 31st, 2010 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllPrincess Charming: Katherine L. Oldmeadow. The Children’s Press 1960?
I’ve owned this book since before I wrote my name in ‘joined-up’ writing, so I’m hardly unbiased, but it was good to reread this (and a while since I had last read it). It left me wanting to collect more of Oldmeadow’s books – I have about five of them, and it's been a while since I bought the last.
This particular book could have been retitled 'The Busy Bees of Idle Pines', as the princess charming, Jill, who is both fascinating and a fourteen year old full of beans who hasn’t had much self-discipline as she has had an unsettled scholastic career so far, arrives late and the focus is as much on the Warren girls as her. At the start of the story, Penelope, Cassandra, Pandora and Aurora (known as ‘the classical family’) are facing the prospect of leaving Idle Pines, their home in the New Forest, after their beloved father’s death. Their governess, Miss Wendell – Wendy – and Pan come up with the same Idea that will save them from this calamity.
It is, of course, to start a school, and a very delightful school it is – open air (it rarely rains!), borrowing a little from Elizabethan and Monteressi methods. Wendy has definite ideas about discipline, encourages innovation and educates the girls in practical matters as well as in classical lessons. But as the focus of the story is all the fun the girls get up to, it always sounded fantastic, even if the early morning gardening is painted as being a more delightful experience than it should have been. I don’t know why I glossed over the reality of that as a young reader. I may have always been an early riser, but never a keen gardener.
As wise Wendy knew from the outset, although it means a shake up and some sacrifices, being in a school is good for the four girls. The dreamy eldest, Penelope, discovers a practical streak; mopey swot Cassandra, optimist Pan and the youngest, Rory, all gain friendships and benefit from living with other girls. Wendy has a nice line in making girls who break the few rules or play practical jokes feel like ill-mannered idiots. The experiment of the school’s first year ends with even the difficult girls blending into the communal life, a number of useful projects started up and plans to expand...
It was good to find that the story lived up to my fond memories (although the chapter where the Inseprables accidentally cross paths with a film crew and how the lassoing that Pan and Jill pick up from that incident becomes useful were a bit much - Dimsie may have had to deal with a bear jumping into a car, but these girls had to tackle an ape was a potential threat to the school baby while they were in the middle of playing a part in a pageant. Fortunately, they were on horseback!) But the charm of a school by the forest where babies can be found and matron Mary-Ellen swears there are fairies is irresistible, partly because of the good-humoured way that Oldmeadow manages to step into the fun that the girls are having and step out of it and offer more objective authorial commentary. It’s as riveting as I imagine Jill’s serial bedtime story ‘Lost and Found’ was.
I’ve owned this book since before I wrote my name in ‘joined-up’ writing, so I’m hardly unbiased, but it was good to reread this (and a while since I had last read it). It left me wanting to collect more of Oldmeadow’s books – I have about five of them, and it's been a while since I bought the last.
This particular book could have been retitled 'The Busy Bees of Idle Pines', as the princess charming, Jill, who is both fascinating and a fourteen year old full of beans who hasn’t had much self-discipline as she has had an unsettled scholastic career so far, arrives late and the focus is as much on the Warren girls as her. At the start of the story, Penelope, Cassandra, Pandora and Aurora (known as ‘the classical family’) are facing the prospect of leaving Idle Pines, their home in the New Forest, after their beloved father’s death. Their governess, Miss Wendell – Wendy – and Pan come up with the same Idea that will save them from this calamity.
It is, of course, to start a school, and a very delightful school it is – open air (it rarely rains!), borrowing a little from Elizabethan and Monteressi methods. Wendy has definite ideas about discipline, encourages innovation and educates the girls in practical matters as well as in classical lessons. But as the focus of the story is all the fun the girls get up to, it always sounded fantastic, even if the early morning gardening is painted as being a more delightful experience than it should have been. I don’t know why I glossed over the reality of that as a young reader. I may have always been an early riser, but never a keen gardener.
As wise Wendy knew from the outset, although it means a shake up and some sacrifices, being in a school is good for the four girls. The dreamy eldest, Penelope, discovers a practical streak; mopey swot Cassandra, optimist Pan and the youngest, Rory, all gain friendships and benefit from living with other girls. Wendy has a nice line in making girls who break the few rules or play practical jokes feel like ill-mannered idiots. The experiment of the school’s first year ends with even the difficult girls blending into the communal life, a number of useful projects started up and plans to expand...
It was good to find that the story lived up to my fond memories (although the chapter where the Inseprables accidentally cross paths with a film crew and how the lassoing that Pan and Jill pick up from that incident becomes useful were a bit much - Dimsie may have had to deal with a bear jumping into a car, but these girls had to tackle an ape was a potential threat to the school baby while they were in the middle of playing a part in a pageant. Fortunately, they were on horseback!) But the charm of a school by the forest where babies can be found and matron Mary-Ellen swears there are fairies is irresistible, partly because of the good-humoured way that Oldmeadow manages to step into the fun that the girls are having and step out of it and offer more objective authorial commentary. It’s as riveting as I imagine Jill’s serial bedtime story ‘Lost and Found’ was.
