The Naughtiest Girl in the School is the first novel in the The Naughtiest Girl series by Enid Blyton. It was first published in 1940.
Elizabeth Allen is a spoiled girl who is the only child of her parents. She becomes very upset and outraged when she learns that she is being sent to a boarding school. When Elizabeth joins Whyteleafe School she is determined to misbehave so that she will be expelled and able to go back home as soon as possible.
At Whyteleafe Elizabeth discovers a new world. Because of her mischief she is first disliked by her fellow students, but slowly, Elizabeth learns how to share and get along with people, she learns to make friends and understands the importance of friends. She likes Rita and William - the Head Girl and Head Boy of the School. Rita tells her that a girl in her class - Joan Townsend - is not happy, as her parents neglect her, and Elizabeth promises to try to make friends with Joan. Joan convinces her that misbehaving in order to be expelled is a bad idea, and advises her to be good, and to ask the heads of the school to tell her parents that she is unhappy and to ask them to take her away, but not in disgrace. Elizabeth accepts this suggestion, and her behaviour improves a lot. She also makes good progress at her piano lessons and secretly longs to play at the function held after the half-term break, though she knows this will not be possible if she goes home at half term. Her friendship with Joan develops and Joan talks about how much she loves her mother and how hurt she is by her mother's neglect. Joan knows that her mother will not send her any birthday presents or cake. Elizabeth arranges for a large cake, presents, and cards to be sent to Joan for her birthday, as if from her parents. Joan is overjoyed at first, but when she writes to her mother to thank her, her mother replies that she did not send anything. Joan is distressed, wanders off in the rain, and becomes very ill. Elizabeth writes to Joan's mother to confess her role in making Joan ill. Joan's contrite mother arrives to visit Joan, and explains to the heads that her neglect of Joan stems from a resentment that Joan survived an illness years before, while her more loved twin brother died. Joan and her mother reconcile, and Joan becomes happy again. Meanwhile, Elizabeth, with the help of Rita and William makes up her mind to stay at Whyteleafe as she realizes she is happy there and does not want to leave behind her friends.
Famous quotes containing the words girl and/or school:
“For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish or a German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family, and a Jewish or an Italian daughter in a sweatshop making “ladies” dresses or artificial flowers for the family to purchase.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)
“It was Mabbie without the grammar school gates.
And Mabbie was all of seven.
And Mabbie was cut from a chocolate bar.
And Mabbie thought life was heaven.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)