Monday 27 August 2012

First Term at Trebizon by Anne Digby (Children's, 9 years +, 10/10)


Reprinted 2012, Straw Hat
128 pages, ebook
Review copy

Themes: boarding school, quietish girl, work thieves, school sports teams, working hard, befriending the wrong person, misunderdtandings, homesickness, fun, happiness, turbulent times, getting on the wrong side of people, a lot of humour and some mild peril

Summary from Amazon (I don't gain anything by mentioning Amazon) 
Fresh from her London comprehensive, Rebecca is pitched into life at a famous boarding school. Trebizon is right down on the coast and a long way from home. She's the only new girl in her year and everyone else seems to have made friends already.

Lonely and anxious to prove herself, she decides to write something for the school magazine. But the piece that appears is not the one she submitted and it leads to a scandal that rocks the school.

It's a good thing that one girl, at least, is prepared to stick up for her.

Nayuleska's thoughts
It felt like I was returning home when I read the first of many stories about Rebecca's life at Trebizon. It's been well over 10 years since I last read it, and although it felt familiar and I vaguely knew what would happen next, a lot of it was a pleasant surprise. I wanted to yell at Rebecca for making the wrong friends. I wanted her to let people in so she didn't appear so stand-offish. 
I gasped when major events happened. Even though I knew the end result, part o me was scared the truth of events would remain hidden. This has the usual staples of boarding school stories which I never tire from: sly girls, enthusiastic girls, dorm antics, drama over dinner, encouragement in working hard and playing hard. The spirit of this 10/10 read is timeless (The girls would have been in awe of our modern printers compared with what they had to use).

Suggested read
For modern boarding school tales try School Friends by Ann Bryant which includes School Friends: Party at Silver Spires



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