feather_ghyll

Two Joans At The Abbey: Elsie J. Oxenham Collins. This reprint 1949.

The two Joans are of different generations, and I will say that one of the strengths of this book is that it has time for all the generations of ‘Abbey girls’, from one of the original ones, Joan, to Joy’s twins, Elizabeth and Margaret. I suppose that I should also note that I’ve read books in the series set after this one (as you can see if you click on the tags), and will reference some events from the latter in this review.

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Last May, I posted a list of links with the title 'LINKS: VARIOUS', saying ‘Here are some links I have meant to post for a good long while’. This is the case again, only the links are different:

Here’s an enthusiastic review of Daddy Long-Legs (I must find a copy of Dear Enemy!)

And in the same series of ‘Squee’ features, one for The Blue Castle (the comments praise A Tangled Web, which is one of the few LMM books I don’t own…yet).

Here's an overview of the Dimsie series and its appeal which led me to something similar about the Abbey girls series.

The confessions of a sci-fi and fantasy bookseller (some of this is specific to SFF, but some points would be echoed by other booksellers, I think.)

The Abbey Girls on Trial: Elsie J. Oxenham Collins (between 1949 and 1951)

I found myself reading the first few chapters of this book with more interest than I’d expected, given the last few Abbey Girls books that I’ve read, ( Read more... )

A Dancer from the Abbey: Elsie J. Oxenham Collins 1953

The Abbey Girls books ( Read more... )

Noel Streatfeild news and resources:

Ballet Shoes to be made into a feature length drama to air on BBC One later this year - read the press release. I got the heads up from Digital Spy. This could be great, the BBC, after all, should be able to handle this sort of material in its sleep, but it rather depends on who they cast to play the Fossils and what the director gets out of them.

h2g2 has an overview of the 'Shoes' "series" (which was artificially created as such, though some of them are obviously connected, says the person who never could read 'The Bell Family', in fact I'm not sure if I didn't give up and give it away.)

For more, there's this well-presented Noel Streatfeild site: http://www.whitegauntlet.com.au/noelstreatfeild/

Discussion - girls in fiction and the women writing it

Girl wonders
As Nancy Drew returns to the screen, Laura Barton remembers the fictional female heroes who bested the boys, bucked convention and shaped her childhood

Were you an Ann or a George? (Plus, it may be made more explicit in later books, because, yes, I am of the Nancy Drew Files/strawberry blonde generation, but is Ned Nickerson not 'the love interest' and sidekick to Nancy? Sadly, there's no mention of the Swallows and Amazons girls in this article.)

Editorial anonymous, a children's book editor, discusses the question of whether children's books are a girls' club and if so why? This mainly refers to modern children's literature.

I recommend
Essay/Discussion: Twins, part two by sangerin, which focuses on the twins of the Abbey Girls and Chalet School series.

Malcolm Saville resources:

The Malcolm Saville centenary website, through which I discovered 'Three Towers in Tuscany' is the first of a sequel, which ends with 'Marston Baines - Master Spy'. My delight at the fact that there are more books and that one of them has such a title cannot be textually rendered.

Quizzes:

http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/literature/specific_subjects__themes/childrens_literature.html