Thoughts

Working through the Malory Towers series, this is the book that I thought would be most familiar to me. I'm sure I had a copy of this when I was younger and the title of it just tickles something in my head. In the Fifth!

As it suggests, our girls are in their penultimate year at the seaside boarding school, and this time they've got a real responsibility: producing the end of year pantomime and they're determined to do it all themselves. They're led by a new-to-us character, Moira, who is a perfectionist and stubborn, liking to have everything her own way, and upsetting plenty of people along the way.

Alicia was white. "I’m not performing any more tonight," she said, in a cold and angry voice. "You’re quite stealing the performance yourself, aren’t you, Moira?"

Alicia storms out of rehearsals and swears never to come back. That was a really interesting section because you knew she was going to have to come back, but how would she do it without losing face?

I've noticed this a few times across the series but it was really noticeable in this book - Enid Blyton really phones in her chapter titles. One of them, midway through the book, was just called: "Things Happen." I mean, seriously? You could just call the whole book that and be done with it.

Nevertheless, like the previous books in this series, you get the satisfaction of everything coming together for the girls (those 'things' that happened, they worked themselves out in the end). A cosy boarding school story that doesn't require you to have read the previous books in the series, although at this point I think it probably helps - you would have a bit more backstory for the girls and understand their moods slightly better.

For nostalgia and because putting on a pantomime is a great endeavour to follow, this leans towards the upper end of the scale. There's no specific reason this doesn't get full marks, but it just doesn't quite reach the heights it needs to.

Rating: 4 / 5