While the storyline of this book is a standard one: new girl's troubles, adventure on walk, half-term trip and nativity play, it's wonderful to get back to Abroad. ( )

Barbara, who used to be an invalid, goes to the Chalet School in Switzerland when she is 14. Not much plot, but a bit more human interest than many of the later books in the series.

Re-read after fourteen years, in hardcover form; it's cliched of course and caricatured, but I so like the people, who feel almost like old friends. I was a little disappointed that there's so little of Joey Maynard (who is quarantined for most of the book) - although this volume does come immediately after 'Joey goes to the Oberland', which features Jo's family and nothing of the school.

It's an important book for fans of the series, introducing the new branch of the school, but not particularly good as a stand-alone or as introduction to the series. Reprinted recently by Girls Gone By as a facsimile paperback, with a new introduction. ( )