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Ellen #1
Ellen and the Queen
Because of her naughtiness, Ellen is denied the privilege of seeing the Queen with her class, but she determines to see her on her own anyway.
80 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Gillian Avery
82 books19 followersGillian Elise Avery was a British children's novelist, and a historian of childhood education and children's literature. She won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972 for A Likely Lad. It was adapted for television in 1990.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 4, 2015
Snippet-like story about a naughty girl who meets a somewhat less naughty richer girl. They misbehave for a day. The end.
The Queen is coming on a visit to the local nobleman. The schoolkids get to see her pass by, but not Ellen because she is being punished for not doing her assignment and being rude. She sneaks off (leaving the four-year-old siblings she is supposed to be watching) and bumps into the nobleman's daughter, who is ditching her nurse. They eat some stolen candy, spy on the prep for the royal visit, see the Queen's ankles by hiding under the bed.
If there was a moral, I missed it. Ellen is genuinely not a likable kid: she brags all the time, is mean to younger kids, disobeys her mother in fairly serious ways (as in, might cause her to lose her position, which was a serious thing in the 19th century), talks back to the teacher, doesn't do her work at school or home. The teacher is kind of mean by today's standards but not too bad, and Ellen's family seems pretty nice. So this isn't a spunky-girl-rebelling against oppression, is my point in brief.
This wasn't bad, but it seemed kind of pointless. It was the kind of day that one might remember from one's own childhood (minus the Victorian aspect) that is interesting from the personal perspective; this kind of story can be made interesting to strangers if one is a good story-teller, but Avery isn't anything special as a writer.
The Queen is coming on a visit to the local nobleman. The schoolkids get to see her pass by, but not Ellen because she is being punished for not doing her assignment and being rude. She sneaks off (leaving the four-year-old siblings she is supposed to be watching) and bumps into the nobleman's daughter, who is ditching her nurse. They eat some stolen candy, spy on the prep for the royal visit, see the Queen's ankles by hiding under the bed.
If there was a moral, I missed it. Ellen is genuinely not a likable kid: she brags all the time, is mean to younger kids, disobeys her mother in fairly serious ways (as in, might cause her to lose her position, which was a serious thing in the 19th century), talks back to the teacher, doesn't do her work at school or home. The teacher is kind of mean by today's standards but not too bad, and Ellen's family seems pretty nice. So this isn't a spunky-girl-rebelling against oppression, is my point in brief.
This wasn't bad, but it seemed kind of pointless. It was the kind of day that one might remember from one's own childhood (minus the Victorian aspect) that is interesting from the personal perspective; this kind of story can be made interesting to strangers if one is a good story-teller, but Avery isn't anything special as a writer.
May 13, 2020
Even though it is designed for younger readers, it fails to deliver. The entire story is told rather than shown, and the end is so abrupt, it's unexpected.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews