By Poppy Hutchinson

Title: First Term at Malory Towers
Series: Malory Towers
Main Character: Darrell Rivers
Published: 1946
First Published By: Methuen
Rating (out of 5) : 5

First Term at Malory Towers is a very entertaining book, filled with the amusing ups and downs of school life at the boarding school; Malory Towers. New girl Darrell Rivers starts off the term with many good intentions but soon finds life at Malory Towers more difficult than she expects. Initially, it is very difficult to get through school life with a hot temper like Darrell’s, but with a girl like Gwendoline in your form, there is bound to be a few arguments! Darrell is ticked off a few times in this book for losing control of her temper. I do not blame her at times for her actions however, as I thought it was awful of Gwen to duck Mary-Lou like she did and I would be sure to give the culprit a few slaps, but that might just be me with a temper! When Darrell loses her temper one last time, by pushing Sally over, she becomes very worried she might have seriously hurt the other girl and I enjoyed the suspense this built up. I also thought it was strange how Sally denied having a baby sister and was eager to get to the bottom of that mystery! There were a few mysteries that term, for instance the fountain pen being smashed. I thought that looking under their shoes was a very clever way of getting round that mystery but when Darrell was blamed, things looked black for her! Mary-Lou was the solver of that case though and soon found the real culprit! I thought that smashing timid little Mary-Lou’s pen was a very mean thing to do and was angry that they tried to pin the blame onto someone else as well. I loved the trick that was played in this book too – The Deaf Trick! It was even funnier when Alicia, the mischief maker of the first form, actually became deaf! There was a happy end to the term, everything cleared up and the teachers relieved!

I gave this book a 5 star rating because of the excitement and suspense the story builds up. It was cleverly written. There were a lot of mysteries that were all cleverly cleared up and everything ended on a happy note. I would recommend the book to girls of 9+ unless any boys wish to hear the mischief that goes on in the girls only boarding school! Happy reading everyone!

“First Term at Malory Towers” dustjacket by Stanley Lloyd 1946

All Pictures taken from the Enid Blyton Society’s Cave of Books