The Twins at St. Clare's (St. Clare's Series)

The O'Sullivan twins are forced to go to a non-elitist boarding school against their wishes. Hoping if they are awful enough their parents won't send them back, they are insufferable. But St. Claire's gets under their skin and they can't keep their natural spirits from peeking through.

This is the first of the boarding school novels about the Sullivan twins that has many similarities to the other series (Malory Towers). In Germany, where the twins are called Hanni and Nanni Sullivan, they are more popular than Dolly Rieder (aka Darrell Rivers). But for me they were only "the

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other series", I have to confess. That's why I only read about six books about St. Clair's (in German: Lindenhof) and concentrated on Malory Towers (in German: Möwenfels). I tried to re-read the twins-series in English but only finished about three books. And this one is the best in my opinion, followed closely by part 5 (Hanni und Nanni geben nicht auf) which was only published in Germany (I think it was even not written by Blyton herself but a by ghostwriter...). Probably because I started out with the German series from the beginning, I never warmed towards the English original. But if you like to read about boarding schools in England in the 1950's this is a good read.

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How I love boarding school stories! This was really good and I took to the characters immediately. It's got lovely descriptions of food and activities too. Blyton's style could be more polished at times and a prank per chapter felt quite unrealistic but the core of the book is a delight to read and

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I can't wait for the rest.

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Twin sisters Isabel and Patricia O'Sullivan find themselves sent unwillingly to St. Clare's, rather than the more exclusive Ringmere School where their friends from primary school will be attending, after their parents notice that they are getting a bit conceited. Determined to make their mark,

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Isabel and Pat don't get off to a very good start, finding that of the girls in their dorm room, only Kathleen Gregory is willing to befriend them, as the others believe them to be snobs. They also run into trouble when Pat refuses to take orders from the older girls, and do the tasks assigned to her. Eventually they do integrate into the school more fully, and find themselves caught up in any number of experiences - participating in midnight feasts; campaigning against a particular mistress, and then relenting; helping to find and reform the girl-thief amongst the pupils; playing on the school lacrosse team - that make their first term so memorable...

Originally published in 1941, The Twins at St. Clare's is the first of six novels that the prolific Enid Blyton wrote about the O'Sullivan twins and their time away at St. Clare's school. Although well aware of the series, and the author, I had not picked this book up before it was assigned as a text in the class on the history of children's literature that I took, while getting my masters. I found it lots of fun, despite being well aware of its somewhat formulaic narrative, and copious use of common school story incidents and themes. Prior to reading it, the only other Blyton school story I had read was First Term at Malory Towers, which I did not find nearly so engaging. I thought the sisters were sympathetic characters, I enjoyed the twin-specific pranks they got up to, and I like that, although mischievous, they were not malicious. This last is important, especially in the incidents involving history mistress Miss Kennedy, whom the girls initially torment, until they discover that she is tempted to quit her job, despite needing it to help her seriously ill mother. As the twins say: "a joke's not a real joke when it means real unhappiness to somebody else."

Recommended to anyone who enjoys girls' school stories, or lighthearted children's literature in general.

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