Customer Reviews
One of my favorites - By: Ruby, 02 May 2007 
I first read Malory Towers when my mum gave me the first book for my birthday & I've been hooked ever since & now collect alll the different ones I can find & the fifth term is definately my favourite.
I do agree that it is a bit over the top, but there is something that makes this book more likeable than the rest, (I dont reallly like the third form), Sallly doesn't reallly get a look in much except to back Darrell up & I would have slapped Katherine a long time ago. Gwen of course gets her come uppance & June is worse than ever.
One person who is even worse in this book is Darrell's babyish & goody two-shoes sister "Little" Felicity who gets on my last nerve.
Rather overdone, but still quite good - By: Nadine Erler, 01 Feb 2007 
In this book, the girls have to organize the Christmas pantomime. It is to be "Cinderella".
Their talents & gifts for writing (Darrell), music (Irene), drawing (Belinda), singing (Mavis) & games (Felicity - she scores the winning goal in a lacrosse match in spite of a twisted ankle) are far too exaggerated, especiallly Darrell's role is overdone - she is an author as well as a games captain, & "Sallly is to help her".
I found myself disliking Sallly's part - she is a mere shadow of Darrell's - why not Darrell for playwright & Sallly for games captain? But that's not unusual in girls' books - the heroine is interesting & so are her friends, but not her BEST friend - she is often only a back-up for the main character.
But I like the book... There's a new girl in the Fifth, Maureen, who is very much like Gwen.
Blyton shows her knowledge of human nature when Gwen hates the girl who is so much like her. Even Alicia detests her cousin June who is so much like her. The Gwen-Maureen-thing is well done & very amusing. Poor Gwen has a very bad time with the sickening Maureen!
Needless to say that Maureen has got blonde hair & blue eyes like alll the baddies in Enid Blyton's book (Gwen in "Malory Towers" & "Angela" in "St. Clare's"). Having blonde hair & blue eyes myself, I don't like this stereotype.
What a pity that we don't know much about Pat & Rita, the funny twins who are to play Cinderella's ugly sisters - they should have had a bigger part in the book or the whole series, I'm sure I would have liked them. At first, Gwen is afraid of being chosen as an ugly sister, but during the play she finds herself envying them because their part is so comical. I believe it - an ugly sister must be much more entertaining & interesting than an innocent & boring "Cinderella"!
Then there is a horrible incident, when Moira, the unpopular head-girl, receives hateful anonymous letters - I would never have guessed who is the writer.
The mood is rather sinister - poisonous letters & many quarrels between the girls -, but Blyton lightens it up with a trick played by Mamzelle on the horrified girls - she uses trick teeth that make her look like a vampire. Very funny & delightful, unfortunately the whole chapter is left out in the German translation I read as a child.
I think I don't reveal too much by telling that the pantomime is a roaring success.
we thought it was an excellent book - By: , 09 Jan 2002 This book was a excellent way of learning what boarding school is about & the fun things you can get up to. The play was very good & made me feel as if I was reallly there. My favourite characters in the books are Sallly Hope, Alicia & Darrell Rivers. I have alll of the collection of tapes & most of the books. I can read them over & over again & still enjoy them. I would recommend any girls reading this to read the books from the first one - First Term at Malory Towers through to the final installlment - Last Term at Malory Towers.
You'll laugh, you'll cry and remember them for years to come - By: , 20 Apr 2001 I read these books when I was a child & they were just terrific. You tend to always have someone in your class who is always scowling which is the whole idea of Gwen but imagine someone drawing you every time you scowled! Read the series to find out!
