Little gurl reading

 

When it came to reading although people tried to push me toward more 'grown up' works like those by George Orwell, Thomas Hardy and Jane Austin I always longed for my Junior and early Senior favourites which no doubt would fail a diversity test for being seen as white, middle class and stereotypically girlish.

Of course being a LSG with some boyish likes I just loved the Jennings series by Anthony Buckeridge who as a Prep School teacher knew the working of boys inside out.

Part of the reason is language, my disabilities limit my ability to read for understanding and comprehension of plots so in a way they have to be a bit younger and in an easy to grasp  formular, the other being they key in to recreated school age-play where these were about our lives sometimes set in school itself and all read in boarding school.

Enid Blyton's Naughtiest Girl series is my favourite cos in so many ways I can readily identify with it's main character, Elizabeth Allen, whose attitude are not so removed from mine while every boy knew a Jennings from his set at school.

Then there's this one, Those Dreadful Children.

The three Carlton children - John, Margery and Annette - are excited when a new family move into the house at the bottom of the garden. However, the older Taggertys - Pat, Maureen and Biddy are loud, rough, dirty and not at all the sort of children the prim, tidy Carltons want to associate with. Due to an old friendship of their fathers they are forced together - two sets of Dreadful Children - who have to take a hard look at their own behaviours as they learn to get along.

My copy is really rather old being the third print from 1953.

There's a bit where Dopey the dog jumps the garden wall and joins in the merriment whereby Annette, the smallest Carlton, threatens to go and tell Mummy about him. This is where she learns a few stark facts of life from Pat the oldest Taggerty who grabs hold of her dress. "Sit down, tell-tale. Do you know what you want? You want a jolly good spanking — one that hurts. If I were John I'd slap you every time you told tales or yelled." When Annette actually kicks the dog she is shouted at again and she very quickly learns through her fright that she'd better change herself a little.

In truth I could be easily like that, telling tales, yelling whenever anyone questioned my attitudes and being a bit lazy too,

I do benefit from a good hard spanking to change my attitudes at times.