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What Is The "Naughtiest Girl" Series About?

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The Naughtiest Girl series is a collection of popular books written by Enid Blyton and published between 1940 and 1952. The stories centre around a young girl named Elizabeth Allen and her life in a boarding school.

There are ten books in the series in total. The first is The Naughtiest Girl in the School, which was published in 1940. This book begins with Elizabeth being told by her parents that she is due to attend Whyteleafe boarding school. Elizabeth, who is an only child and extremely spoilt, does not want to attend the school. Since she has no choice, she ends up going, but decides to misbehave whilst there in the hope that she will be sent back home to her parents.

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When she arrives, she puts her plan into action, but eventually ends up liking some of the children. The school has a head boy and head girl and Elizabeth ends up liking them. She later becomes friends with a girl named Joan Townsend, who is unhappy as a result of being neglected by her parents. Joan makes the suggestion that if Elizabeth is desperate to go home, then she should improve her behaviour and ask the heads to inform her parents that she wishes to go home because she is unhappy at the school. Elizabeth agrees and her behaviour and performance in lessons begins to improve.

Elizabeth’s friendship with Joan also deepens and she learns of Joan’s distress at her mother’s neglect. To cheer her friend up, Elizabeth arranges for a cake and presents to arrive in time for Joan’s birthday and pretends that they are from Joan’s parents. Joan, who did not expect to receive anything from her parents, is pleased and decides to write a letter to her mother thanking her. This causes her mother to write back, informing Joan that she never sent any cake or presents. Joan is distraught and as a result goes missing. She is found in the rain and as a result becomes ill.

Elizabeth, who feels extremely guilty for her actions, later informs Joan’s mother that it was her that sent Joan the cake and presents and that she feels responsible for making Joan unwell. Joan’s mother visits the school and reveals that her neglect for Joan came after Joan’s twin, whom Joan’s parents favoured, died as a result of an illness. Joan also had the illness and her parents resented her for surviving whilst her twin died. Joan meets with her mother and they manage to sort their problems out. Elizabeth realises that she does not want to leave the school and her friends behind and so decides to stay with them.

The second instalment of the series is entitled "The Naughtiest Girl Again". Published in 1942, this instalment explores Elizabeth’s second term at Whyteleafe boarding school. During her second term, she faces problems when someone in the school tries to make sure that she ends up misbehaving again by playing a number of tricks on her. During the story, she finds an enemy in two other pupils, Robert and Kathleen and spends most of her time trying to discover who it is that is trying to cause trouble for her.

The third instalment is "The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor". This instalment was published in 1945 and explores Elizabeth’s next term at Whyteleafe Boarding School. In this instalment, Elizabeth becomes a monitor, but her position is threatened when things go wrong.

The fourth instalment, entitled "Here’s the Naughtiest Girl", was released in 1952 and was the last instalment to be written by Enid Blyton. In this story, Elizabeth faces problems yet again when a new boy in her class misbehaves and tries to cause trouble for her. She tries to keep her temper, but his behaviour makes it hard for her to remain calm, resulting in many problems.

The Naughtiest Girl series was continued by Anne Rigby in 1999, over thirty years after Enid Blyton’s death. She wrote the last six books in the series.

The books in the Anne Rigby continuation are: The Naughtiest Girl Keeps a Secret (1999), The Naughtiest Girl Helps a Friend (1999), The Naughtiest Girl Saves the Day (2000), Well Done, The Naughtiest Girl! (2000), The Naughtiest Girl Wants to Win (2001) and The Naughtiest Marches On (2001).

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