What is your favourite book from the La Rochelle series? I haven’t read the last two in the series but of the first five it’s Maids of La Rochelle for me with Seven Scamps definitely my least favourite!

I like Maids of La Rochelle too.

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I like all of them, in fact, though I agree that Maids is lovely. It's the focal point of the series, it seems to me.

What is it about Seven Scamps that so many people don't like?

It’s the scamps themselves that I don’t like! Once the Temples and Athertons join the story, everything improves

I liked the book.

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I voted for Maids. Next two (equal) choices would be Gerry (all those deaths from diphtheria are very sad and it has many similarities with the CS but with EBD as a fledgling author) and Jane of La Rochelle (love Janie setting up home - details we don't get with Jo and Jack).

I agree that Scamps is my least favourite one but I still enjoy re-reading it.

Couldn't possibly choose just one!

Heather Leaves School for me. It is a go to book when I am ill or suffering from depression or anxiety. I like the character of Heather, the trip to Guernsey, I like the school room set up with Miss Christopher and the excitement of the secret passage and the robbers. What's not to love? I wish we saw more of the Raphael's in the later books.

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You're scared of mice and spiders, but oh-so-much greater is your fear that one day the two species will cross-breed to form an all-powerful race of mice-spiders, who will immobilize human beings in giant webs in order to steal cheese.

So do I. They're the only ones who disappear - I know Heather's mentioned in the later Janie books, but not much, and the Raphaels don't turn up in the Chalet School books even though Gerry, the Lucys, the Chesters, the Ozannes, the Willoughbys and the Eltringhams all do.

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Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

http://setinthepast.wordpress.com/

Seven Scamps is my least favourite.

Like Laura V, I find the Willoughby kids obnoxious. It's not mischief, and it's not frustrated lashing out (like Heather, later). They're little hoodlums, and the older ones in particular have a really unpleasant streak of arrogant impudence. Even later in the book, when they've calmed down, they torment Jack Eltringham - an adult guest of their father - because he dared to do something about their out of control behaviour.

And then there is Sir Piers, who pretty much walks out on his seven children for years, because he's sad after his wife's death. Apparently, losing a mother as a child is trivial in comparison. Two of them have significant health issues, and one's a toddler but he doesn't pay any attention to how they're getting on, or make more than very basic provisions for their care. Then he bursts in with a new wife in tow, and is genuinely baffled when they don't immediately and gratefully shape up.

For favourites - probably a Head Girl's Difficulties. It's got a nice balance of school and home stories, and while some of those stories are a bit overwrought, there's a very old fashioned feel to it that's quite different from even the first CS book.

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I love this series. I think Janie Steps in and Gerry are my least favourites, but I can't help but be fond of Gerry since its the very first EBD.

Heather and Maids are my favourites...wish I could pick both. Really like Head Girl's difficulties too. I'm always sad we don't see more of the Raphaels and Con Atherton. It's a pity this series wasn't carried on allowing EBD to draft in more characters in the Swiss years.

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I voted for Heather, but I also really like Janey Steps In, Gerry and Janey of La Rochelle. But I re-read all of them each time.

I like Janie steps in, because it gives us so much background about the three families and helps when we meet them in the Chalet books. I also like Janie of La Rochelle for all the domestic detail of J and J's early married life. If I were to recommend just one book to someone who didn't know any EBD, I'd go for Heather leaves school. It works well as a stand-alone, and the detail about the schooling and contrast between the two families is interesting.

I voted for Janie of La Rochelle because it is such a "homely" book and because Janie is so adored and cared for!

It is probably a narrower book though than my second favourite, Heather Leaves School. The story of that is a bit different and also good reading about all the Raphael luxury.

I do not like Seven Scamps because of their arrogance and misbehaviour. It has probably grown on me slightly over the years though and I noticed on my last reading that Maidie treats the servants well.

I have never managed to get very far with Head Girl's Difficulties. Forget exactly why now but it wasn't what I was expecting and I thought it was old fashioned in a bad way. It does not ride easy with me for some reason.

Apart from getting to know the Atherton family, I don't really like Head Girl's difficulties. Not sure why really as I do like Gerry goes to school. Like most people, Seven Scamps is my least favourite, though I do like the Guernsey part.

I'd say A Head Girls' Difficulties was my least favourite of the series, partly because it seems a bit old-fashioned (thanks for pointing that out, Audrey!) and also for the number of deaths - I particularly hate the episode with José's kitten. I really don't mind the Seven Scamps so much - Sir Piers Willoughby is sufficiently annoying to give everyone else the halo effect, frankly!

I've only read two, but The Maids of La Rochelle is the one I prefer. It's really otherworldly compared to the Chalet School books.