A new school year is about to begin and for our readers it presents a good time to get reacquainted with fictional school series. Readers here at Faded Page are already acquainted with The Twins at St. Clair’s and The Abbey Girls series.

We are pleased to offer an additional school series for juvenile girls, Chalet School, written by Elinor Mary Brent-Dyer (1894-1969). This series is the longest running girls school series with over 58 books and related short stories and has been in print continuously for over 70 years.

Elinor Brent-Dyer started out as a teacher and part-time writer and she also ran her own private school for 10 years. After spending the summer of 1924 on holiday at Pertisau-am-Achensee in the Austrian Tyrol, the first location for Chalet School was born.

The Chalet School books have common themes: various girls come to the school with personal problems, behavioral issues, or just bad attitudes. Over time, their associations with the school mistresses and other students tend to resolve the problems and the student adapts to their new school environment. The author also deals with serious illnesses, family losses, and war from the point of view of the students and the teachers and school mistresses.

In Jo Returns to the Chalet School, book 12 of the series, Jo Bettany, after leaving the school, returns for a short visit, only to find they are short-staffed and begging her to stay to help with the classes. She agrees and returns as a major character of the series. The author used Jo’s character throughout the series to discuss and discourage parochialism and xenophobia.

Here at Faded Page, we have 40 Chalet School titles posted to date, with more coming. You can find a list of all our Chalet School and other school series books here. If you like what we do, help us in our endeavor to complete these series by volunteering to proofread a few pages. For more information, go to Distributed Proofreaders Canada.