The Attic Term was my first foray into the world of [a:Antonia Forest|652132|Antonia Forest|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1349991978p2/652132.jpg]. It is the ninth book in her Marlow series. Of course, in a perfect world I would be reading these books in order, but unfortunately they are a bit hard to find at a reasonable price. While I’m sure one would get more enjoyment out of this book by reading the books preceding this one first, I had no trouble slipping into the series midway through.

It is the start of the autumn term at Kingscote boarding school. Three sisters, Ginty, Nicola, and Lawrie Marlow are assigned to the attic room. Nicola, who was a bit put out at being moved from their usual room ends up liking their new, more secluded space. Despite being happy and settled, she still manages to get into some trouble over the course of the coming term!

Meanwhile, Ginty is having a particularly difficult start to the term. Her best friend at school has had an accident and will not be returning to school for the foreseeable future. Feeling lonely Ginty, takes to making surreptitious phone calls to her boyfriend from the secretary’s office.

This book is very well written with a lot of storylines that fit together nicely. It deals with more mature themes and issues than one would expect from a school story.

Not all of the action takes place in and around the school either, which is a nice break. There are scenes with the Marlow family at home. We also get to see Ginty’s boyfriend, Patrick Merrick at home in London, as well as a walk on Hampstead Heath and a trip to the symphony at the Royal Albert Hall.

If, like me, you did not have the opportunity to read many school stories as a child and wanted to give them a try now, I do not think you could do much better than this one.

Well, I gave in, and read it despite my best intentions to make it last. In this one, the vague hint at the end of The Cricket Term that Ginty is going to test the limits of truth comes to pass. She doesn't turn evil. As always, Forest stays away from stereotyping characters, and so she doesn't offer convenient answers: the evil character is easily squashed because right must prevail.

The characters who want to do right have to struggle, and they don't always win. Patrick and Nicola become more appealing. Ginty . . . turns smaller, through easily understandable steps. Will Patrick stay in love with her? Ginty is obsessed with keeping his interest, all the more because she suspects, deep down, that Patrick has a strong affinity for her younger sister--a bond that she seems incapable of.

Meantime, everything is changing at the school that had seemed so uncomfortably unchanging. And the teachers display more personality than ever before.

omas žanris (raamatud, mille tegevus toimub tütarlaste internaatkoolis) on see üks suurimaid žanripiiride lõhkujaid, mida iial olen sattunud lugema.

alustuseks toimub ebaproportsionaalselt suur osa tegevust väljaspool kooli ja see on päris suur asi, sest kogu internaatkooliraamatu kontseptsioon toimib eelkõige selle pinnal, et tegu on suletud keskkonnaga. (palju õnne muidugi tänapäevasele autorile, kes peab suutma ära seletada, miks/kuidas pole lastel internetti ja mobiiltelefone; 70-ndatel ja 80ndatel toimuva tegevusega raamatutes on enamasti täiesti välistatud igasugused telefonikõned; ja veel varasemates lugudes on tihti kehtestatud täiesti drakoonilised reeglid isegi kirjavahetustele.) aga siin näidatakse meile kõigepealt lausa mitme peatüki jagu Marlow'de kodust elu suvevaheaja lõpul; ja lisaks peategelasele Gintyle (pluss hulgale ta õdedele) tüdrukutekoolis kirjeldatakse paralleelselt ka ta sõbra Patricku kodust ja poistekoolielu.

ja muidugi see, mis selle loo üldse tööle paneb - Ginty HELISTAB Patrickule. korduvalt. koolisemestri jooksul. ja sellist asja reeglid lihtsalt ette ei näe ja loomulikult tuleb neil sellest jama. ja ma kogu aeg pooleldi ootasin, et keegi noomib neid muuhulgas selle eest, et nad rikuvad internaatkooliraamatureegleid (mitte ainult koolireegleid), sest esiteks kommunikatsioon välismaailmaga ja teiseks, Patrick on POISS. mõned prouad on suutnud kirjutada mitmekümnest raamatust koosnevaid koolisarju, kus ei mainita kunagi ühtegi poissi ega meest ja loomulikult pole ükski koolitüdruk ühessegi neist kunagi armunud :) nii et suht eriline lugu ikka.

last but not least, veendunud katoliiklasest autor kasutab seda raamatut, et väljendada oma arvamust Vatikani II kirikukogu kehtestatud muutuste kohta katoliku liturgias. ja ma ei oleks elus enne arvanud, et tütarlaste internaatkooliraamatu lugemine viib mind mingi kirikukogu otsuste googeldamiseni. (otsused ise tunduvad mulle mõistlikud, näiteks et missat pidada ladina keele asemel mõnes keeles, millest kogudus ka aru saab, ja preester keerata näo, mitte seljaga rahva poole. aga Patricku suu läbi mõistab Forest sellise jama karmilt hukka, sest see, selgub, on põhimõtteliselt protestantism. ma ei hakka institutsionaalset religiooni iial mõistma.) no see ei ole teile Enid Blyton, tõesti ei ole.

Amazing how much of this school story is taken up with conversations about Vatican-II and Forest's frustration about it. We begin shortly after the end of The Cricket Term: Patrick and Gintie are an item, and, as the summer holidays wind down, Gintie frets about how much she'll miss him while she's at school. When term starts, Gintie continues to feel out of sorts: her friend Monica has had an accident and is missing the term of school, and Gintie isn't performing well on her school teams, and there is no school play for her to star in. She begins to sneak into the school office in the evenings and ring Patrick to assuage her loneliness. Eventually this sends her into hot water, along with her sister Nick, who is in trouble for buying clothes without permission. Like in the other novels, the events themselves seems small and unimportant, but Forest uses them to capture the children's inner lives, and evoke the feelings of youth and of struggling to find one's place in the world. At the same time, Forest is always concerned with religion, and much of Patrick's place in the narrative is his use as a mouthpiece for Forests' negative feelings about Vatican-II (which made major changes to how Mass was said, for example). This weighs oddly on the narrative: where one feels there should be space for Patrick and Gintie to agonise about their relationship, the focus is much more on external concerns. As an adult reader, I found Forest's preoccupations interesting and a little amusing, but I'm not sure I would have been on board with them as a child. All this being said, Forest's school novels are a successful enterprise: full of emotions, believable dialogue, and a sense of place -- though they work within the limits of the genre, they also transcend it. I'm glad I read them.