Her friends were made of sterner stuff, seemingly -- or else just more used to being schoolgirls, and therefore deceiving adults for their own good. [p. 86]
I enjoyed Three Twins at the Crater School enough to sign up for the author's Patreon, which recently bestowed Mary Ellen, Craterean! on its subscribers. (This is the third in the series: must get around to the second ...) Imperial Mars, the Eternal Empress in her coccoon, and boarding-school hijinks! Mary Ellen has been granted a scholarship to the Crater School, funded by a best-selling lady novelist who's an alumna of the school, and who visited Mary Ellen's isolated farmstead to do some research. At first Mary Ellen is overwhelmed by her schoolmates -- especially the Crew, a gaggle of nine girls who support and help one another and who are honourable, good sports et cetera. Mary Ellen is the one who's good with words: but school is so full of opportunities that it drains her energy, even before a horrid revelation that may mean she has to turn her back on friends, school magazine and all those books, and return to the farm where she grew up.
This is immensely evocative of all those breathless boarding-school novels -- Malory Towers, Chalet School -- though the discipline is sometimes a little harsh, and perhaps I did not need to read quite so many pages about game-playing: but Mary Ellen and her friends are cheerful and likeable, and there's something very cozy about the setting. I long for more of the Imperial Mars, and the naiads, though ...
Hmmm, I see I do own the second in the series, Dust Up at the Crater School. Soon!
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