From the Archives: A Patriotic Schoolgirl by Angela Brazil

I've had another bookcase collapse, and so I'm done with Ikea bookcases and am now using industrial shelving, which I don't like one bit, but luckily it's just a temporary solution. My Kiddo has been home since Thanksgiving and helped me put things back in order, and in the process, we found a bunch of books that had been shelved behind other books. These were old copies of books published for girls just before and during WWII that I had used for research years ago. There were also a few older books from WWI. And sure enough, I got pulled into rereading Angela Brazil's WWI book A Patriotic Schoolgirl. Published in London in 1918 by Blackie & Son, it is just one of many of Brazil's boarding school books.



A Patriotic Schoolgirl begins just as Marjorie Anderson, 15, and her sister Dona, 13, are about to be sent off to boarding school. Marjorie is an energetic, outgoing girl but one who is prone to acting impulsively. She's already been to boarding school before, so she's looking forward to being at Brackenfield College, playing hockey and making friends. Dona is much shyer and reserved, content to live in Marjorie's shadow, has no interest in sports, doesn't make friends easily, and would much rather continue to be home schooled. As for the rest of the family, they are described as "a large and rambling family." Father is a soldier serving in France; older sister Nora is already married; Bevis is in the Navy on board the HMS Relentless; Leonard is serving in the trenches somewhere in France; Larry has just been conscripted and is going into training; Peter, 11, has been away at boarding school for three years and is returning there again; Cyril is also off to boarding school, and only youngest Joan will stay at home.



Due to her own work, Mrs. Anderson must send the girls to Brackenfield alone on the train. After missing their connecting train to London, making them 2 hours late, they meet a kind soldier who helps them with their unwieldily belongings. Unluckily, when they part at Euston Station and the teacher meeting them sees them speaking with a soldier, Miss Norton takes an immediate dislike to both girls.



Put into separate houses at school, at first "life seemed a breathless and confusing whirl of classes, meals, and calisthenic exercises, with a continual ringing of bells and marching from one room to another." Eventually, however, Marjorie and Dona find their way. Marjorie makes friends with the other girls in her dormitory, even convincing them to pull a few pranks, while Dona finds herself attracted to the more solitary study of Natural History and Photography.



A Patriotic Schoolgirl is basically the story of Marjorie's overcoming her impulsive nature and assimilating into boarding school life. She really loves a good prank, which usually gets her into trouble. But one episode involving a letter she impulsively writes to a soldier has some serious consequences, including a near expulsion. She is told that she has broken school rules and "transgressed against the spirit of the school" with her 'vulgar correspondence." Marjorie has always been extremely patriotic, she "followed every event of the war keenly, and was thrilled by the experiences of her soldier father and brothers. She was burning to do something to help - to nurse the wounded [as her older cousin Elaine does], drive a transport wagon, act as secretary to a staff-officer, or even be telephone operator over in France." Marjorie just wants more than anything to do her bit for her country, which is why she wrote the letter to a soldier in the first place, never dreaming he would write back.



When a new girl, Chrissie Lang, arrives after the Christmas break, Marjorie finds a new best friend in her. Chrissie is overly interested in hearing about the soldiers in Marjorie's family, as well as learning about the nearby P.O.W. camp. When suspicious happenings in school are noticed, it appears there might a spy in the school. But is it Miss Norton, aka the Acid Drop, who has her own secret, or could it be someone else. And Marjorie is determined to find out just who it is.



I really love a good boarding school story and, for the most part, this one really suited me. A Patriotic Schoolgirl is a marvelous window into the requirements, customs, and rituals that surround boarding schools at that time. Brazil goes into great detail about these things and, I have to be honest, just reading the requirements of what each girl was expected to bring with her boggled my mind.



And Brackenfield College is a strict school with a hard-nosed headmistress, one that for most of the book feels like a good fit for Dona, but definitely not for Marjorie. In the end, though, Marjorie learns to adhere to school values and principles, to comport herself accordingly, and to find a more gentlewomanly outlet for her patriotism. I do wonder at this message, however.



It was fun to revisit A Patriotic Schoolgirl and if you would like to read it, too, you can download a copy at Project Gutenberg, along with 27 other books by Angela Brazil.

Going through all those books, I also found a copy of Five Jolly Schoolgirls, a 1941 WWII book by Angela Brazil that I also haven't read in years, so maybe it's time to revisit that one, too.



You can read more about Angela Brazil, her life and her books HERE



This book is recommended for readers age 11+

This book was purchased for my personal library

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From the Archives #30: Three Books by Munro Leaf

Most of us are familiar with Munro Leaf’s iconic anti-bullying-be-yourself book The Story of Ferdinand, especially now that it has once again been made into a movie. Ferdinand, you may recall, is a bull who refuses to fight, preferring instead to peacefully smell the flowers. Ferdinand was written in 1936, and since it takes place in Spain, critics quickly equated it with the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). In fact, the story of the “peaceful” bull was burned by the Nazi’s and banned in General Francisco Franco’s fascist Spain, bellicose countries where Ferdinand was considered to be anti-fascist and subversive for attempting to promote a pacifist agenda. 

When the Untied States entered WWII after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Leaf enlisted in the Army and while serving, he wrote two books that offer suggestions for ways in which children could participate in the war effort as the country quickly mobilized for war. After all, everyone wanted to do their bit for the war effort, including children. And, it was felt that the best way to help war-time anxieties in the young was to take advantage of their youthful energy and natural desire to help.

In his book, A War-Time Handbook for Young Americans, Leaf offers suggestions for kids age 7 and up on what they can do. The book's objective are clearly laid out in the book’s blurb:

"Munro Leaf knows that boys and girls from seven or eight up are interested in their country's war and have a right to be. He tells them what they want to know about constructive war-time behavior - incidentally good citizenship for peace-time, too. He gives dozens of practical suggestions - based on actual plans of Government Departments, and made joyful and inviting by his own lively drawings in red and black - for things boys and girls can properly do to help their country in this crisis. He tells them how they can become a real part of the job that every American citizen must share to bring Victory and Peace.

"In the family, in the neighborhood, in the community, this book will create new cooperation, new interest, new spirit, in giving boys and girls their part in the big job. It is their hat, too, and they are eager to put it on. The book will help parents, organizers and teachers to know how to use the vast energy and eager spirit of millions of young American citizens."

The suggestions are simple - from keeping themselves strong and healthy, maintaining a cheerful attitude, helping to create a harmonious atmosphere at home by doing chores cheerfully, to gathering scrape metal and paper, working in community gardens, learning first aid, running errands, and simply by being a good neighbor and a good citizen. 

A War-Time Handbook for Young Americans, along with the same kind of quirkily illustrated black and red girl and boy stick figures was quickly followed by shorter book called My Book to Help America, published “at the suggestion of the U.S. Treasury Department.” Essentially a shortened version of the Handbook, it reiterates the ways kids can get involved in the war effort. The difference is that this is a book that have another purpose:

At the very end of the book was a Savings Bond booklet that kids could use to paste their stamps in each time they bought one, and once they read $18.75 in stamps, they could trade their booklet in for a savings bond, worth $25.00 at maturity in 10 years.



Kids actually did embrace they suggestions Leaf makes in these books, though how far their actual influence went can't really be measured. Still, it goes to the power that books have to teach and inspire action in young readers. And yes, the Axis powers also used these kinds of propaganda tools to influence and inspire their young readers.



Needless to say, of the three books here, The Story of Ferdinand is fortunately still a beloved children's book.



The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson

1936, Viking Books, 72 pages;



A War-Time Handbook for Young Americans written and illustrated by Munro Leaf

1942, Frederick A. Stokes, 64 pages



My Book to Help America written and illustrated by Munro Leaf

1942, Whitman Publishers, 32 pages

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From the Archives #29: Comrades of the Air by Dorothy Carter

                      ***Contains Spoilers***



I’ve been laid up with an injury lately and was looking for a comfort read among my old 1940s wartime novels, and just as I reached for The Highland Twins at the Chalet School, I noticed Dorothy Carter’s book Comrades of the Air. Since I have read two books about Russian women pilots in WWII this year, Night Witches by Kathryn Lasky and Among the Red Stars by Gwen C. Katz, I pulled it out instead and decided to reread it - it was not exactly a comfort read but it is exciting.

Dorothy Carter wrote six books about Marise Duncan, a young aviatrix, and her flying adventures. The first three novels take place before the war, and the last three involve Marise in some wartime activity. In Sword of the Air, for instance, Marise is ferrying planes to France and finds herself spying for British Intelligence by working in a Messerschmitt factory (and becoming fluent in German rather quickly). In the third book, Marise Flies South, she is flying bombers to Australia and finds herself tackling the Japanese. Both of these books are difficult to find and when you do, they usually cost a fortune. I don't own either one.

Comrades of the Air is the second of the wartime novels, also hard to find, and also expensive. The story begins when Marise discovers that some of her male pilot friends are leaving for Russia on a secret mission. Marise’s dad works for British Intelligence and is away somewhere on assignment, while her mom stays home taking care of some evacuees. Not to be left out, Marise convinces her superiors that she is quite capable of ferrying a much needed plane to an aerodrome in Russia. The Russians are short supplies since since the Nazis are attempting to invade Russia.

Arriving at an aerodrome near Moscow, Marise meets siblings Katya and Ivan Vanevska. Though neither are pilots, the do fly combat missions, she as an air gunner, Ivan as a navigator. And much to Marise’s surprise, not only are her pilot friends based at the same aerodrome, but so is her father, Captain Duncan. Unfortunately, their reunion is short lived when the aerodrome is attacked by the Nazis and Captain Duncan is knocked unconscious and seriously injured. After the attack, the four remaining undamaged planes are quickly loaded up with personnel and take off. Marise flies one of the planes with Katya as gunner and Ivan as navigator, and her still unconscious father.

But when the planes are attacked by enemy aircraft, and Marise’s plane is damaged, she is forced to land on the coast of the White Sea. After camouflaging the plane, the group builds a shelter to protect them from the elements and any chance of being seen by the enemy. Food is scarce, so while Ivan is out hunting, he comes upon an enemy outpost. They witness a steamer being attacked by a German U-boat and soon rescue a Swedish woman and her two children, the only apparent survivors. 

It now becomes clear that they will have to leave and try walk the 80 or so miles to Archangel. But before leaving, Marise manages to steal some food from the Nazis under cover of darkness. Having built a kind of sledge to transport Captain Duncan, the group takes off. Luckily, the falling snow covers their tracks. Eventually, they run into a woodsman who takes them in and feeds them. After sometime, he leads them to the nearest village, about 15 miles away. Unfortunately, the village is occupied by Nazis, who are stealing warm clothes, blankets and food from the villagers to be sent back to Germany. The woodsman returns to his cabin, and sure enough the group is captured by the Nazis. The Swedish woman and her children, however, are sent out into the cold, while the rest of the group is placed under arrest (they are taken in by a woman villager).

Meanwhile, Marise’s pilot friends have finally figured out that her plane never arrived after the evacuation of the Moscow aerodrome, and decide it’s time to start searching. 

Having pillaged the village and rested, the Germany convoy is ready to leave, and the plan is to send their prisoners to Germany to be questioned by the Gestapo. Under heavy guard, it looks like there is no possibility of escape, especially with Captain Duncan so badly injured. But, when a plane is spotted overheard, Marise guesses from the way it is being flown, it can be no one other than her friend Jim Grant. Flying low, the plane causes considerable damage to the convoy. Unfortunately the plane is also shot down and while everyone else assumes the pilot is dead, Marise is convinced that if it is really Jim Grant, he has survived. Thanks to the attack and damage, the Nazis are distracted trying to get things up and running again, so a plan is formulated for Marise to escape the lorry they are being held in to look for Jim. 

Sure enough, Jim has survived and Marise finds him. The two come up with a plan to rescue Captain Duncan, Katya, and Ivan using ammunition Marise had taken from a damaged lorry. Marisa finds her way back to the lorry with the prisoners, and the plan is that she will drive it away from the convoy as quickly as she can, while Jim uses the stolen ammunition to attack the Germans. It all going according to plan, but suddenly the noise from the attack stops and there is again the fear that Jim had been killed. But no, Jim had radioed the aerodrome when he saw the convoy and given them directions to it, not knowing that Marise and the other were also in one of the lorries.  

Far fetched as it sounds the plan actually works, the Allied bombers attack the convoy and everyone escapes with their lives. Back home in England, Marise tells her mother that going through the experiences has with Katya and Ivan, they are now comrades - comrades of the air.

Although Comrades of the Air has a pretty preposterous plot, it is still a fun, fast novel. Carter seems to have been aware that women pilots in Russia, unlike their English counterparts, took part in combat, information Marise is surprised to learn. Interestingly, Carter never refers to Russia as the Soviet Union, even though the Revolution is mentioned, and Katya is an enthusiastic supporter of it and a true comrade.

Dorothy Carter, whose real name was Eileen Marsh was a prolific writer who wrote under a number of pen names.  According to Stephen Bigger’s post about her on his blog 1930-1960, Eileen Marsh wrote 120 books between 1935 and 1948 under 16 different names. You might also be interested in Stephen's blog post about Comrades of the Air, too. If you even see any of the three wartime Marise Duncan novels at a reasonable price, you might want to snatch them up. 



This book is recommended for readers age 10+

This book was purchased for my personal library

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