A short volume (uncut in the Armada edition) that takes place out of school. Some scenes at the start are at Madge and Jem's home, then we follow a number of the Chalet School girls in their camping expedition, as Guides.

There are quite a number of incidents packed into this slim volume, and in one or two places I found myself smiling as they were quite amusing. This is the first of the non-school books, and I liked it considerably better than I had recalled - but then it's probably thirty years or more since I last read it.

Inevitably old-fashioned in some of the viewpoints, but then it was first published ninety years ago. It could work as a stand-alone book, but best read in sequence with the other books in this lengthy series.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-chalet-girls-in-camp-by-elinor-... ( )

Well, this is easily my favourite Chalet novel so far. The Chalet School is a very poor example of the school story insofar as it's really a series of adventure novels in which all the characters attend or teach at the same school. The Chalet Girls in Camp is the most honest of the lot since it does what it says on the tin, meaning we're treated to the very best Elinor Brent-Dyer has to offer - long descriptions of meals and food, domestic work, treasure hunts - and this time it's contextualized enough to make sense. I loved this also for personal reasons - it reminded me so much of the wonderful camaraderie and sense of escapism I would feel every time I went to camp (and I did go to camp twice a year for over ten years). The brief allusions to girls' guiding were also very welcome as I've always been very interested in that topic. All in all, good fun. I miss camp terribly, perhaps I missed my vocation as a camp counsellor! ( )

'The Chalet Girls in Camp' charms with its depiction of beautiful Tyrolean landscapes, warm friendships, and the gentle adventures of 1930s Girl Guide camps. Not being particularly fond of either guiding or camping, this isn't a Chalet School I've returned to very often, which is perhaps a mistake, as it epitomises many of the strengths of the early parts of the series. The descriptions are vivid, with the dark pine forest and the silvery waters of the Baumersee, there is a strong sense of time and place, and EBD captures the nuances of teenage friendships characterised by perpetual teasing - the relationship between Joey and Grizel has always struck me as particularly true to life.

After all the fires, floods, kidnappings and assorted other near death experiences of the early Tyrol books, Camp is a nice change of pace with largely everyday adventures: falling in a pit, disturbing a hornets' nest, and the pitfalls of attempting to be helpful. Even the less plausable elements sweetly encapsulate the romanticism of the early books, with the find of hidden letters revealing a doomed love from the Napoleonic wars.

However, the absence of high drama also ties in with my main criticism of this book: the lack of narrative structure. It merely prevents a linear account of the two weeks of the camp, with no overarching themes or character development to pull it all together. Some of the attitudes presented also seem anachronistic to the modern reader, most notably Miss Wilson's big speech about the education of women, and the suggestion that it is horribly vulgar of Joey to imply that Juliet could possibly find daydreaming about her fiance to be preferable to packing provisions for Guide camp.

These are only minor quibbles; 'The Chalet Girls in Camp' is a warm, gentle comfort read, a step into a summer of fun, friendship, and remarkably comfortable camp beds on the shores of the Baumersee with many of Brent-Dyer's most enjuring characters - not to mention a few familiar EBDisms. Where exactly do they manage to fit an airstrip up on the Sonnalpe? ( )