The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor
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 First edition | |
| Author | Enid Blyton |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Kenneth Lovell |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Naughtiest Girl series |
| Genre | School |
| Publisher | George Newnes Ltd |
Publication date | 1945 |
| Media type | Print () |
| OCLC | 43822982 |
| Preceded by | The Naughtiest Girl Again |
| Followed by | Here's the Naughtiest Girl! |
The Naughtiest Girl Is a Monitor is a children's novel by Enid Blyton published in 1945, the third in The Naughtiest Girl series of novels.
Plot summary[]
Elizabeth Allen is chosen to be a monitor in Whyteleafe School with her best friend Joan Townsend. Near the end of the holidays, a girl called Arabella Buckley comes to stay at Elizabeth's house as she will attend Whyteleafe the next term. Both girls mutually dislike each other. When the holidays were officially over, Elizabeth could not wait to get rid of Arabella, thinking she will be in the form above her because she was older. However, to her dismay, Arabella was in the first form too which made things very unpleasant for her that term. Julian Holland, Martin Follett and Rosemary Wing were also the new children in her form and she made good friends with Julian, a bright and clever but do-as-I-wish boy. As the term progressed, Julian and Elizabeth had a fight, the first form had a midnight party, someone has started to play tricks on Elizabeth in class and there was a thief amongst the first formers!
After being sent out of class twice and making an unintentional but still untruthful complaint of Julian in the Meeting, she had to step down from being a monitor and a new one was selected. However, she learnt her lesson and after meeting with William, Rita and Julian, the two first formers were good friends once again. Only the mystery of the nasty thief in the first form is left to uncover.
Julian had a huge shock. He was told that his mother was extremely ill and that she might not survive. He was devastated as he loved his mother dearly. He vowed that from then on he will put his brains to good use and not just whenever he wanted to and to come up with tricks. After a while, he had the fortunate news that she is much better thanks to the new medicine his father and his two friends were making for so many years. Martin also owned up to Elizabeth saying that he was the thief. Furious, Elizabeth calls Martin a mean coward when he said that he could not bear to own up to the Meeting, but she wondered why Martin was mean and kind at the same time, stealing people's things and money and yet generously giving it all away when people were unhappy. She looked through the big school Book for a case similar to his... At the weekly Meeting, Martin surprised Elizabeth by owning up to his wrongdoings. After knowing the reason why Martin did the things he did, the whole school discussed how they can help him not repeat his wrongdoing again and gave him a chance, this is the great thing about Whyteleafe School!
Near the end of the book, Elizabeth and Julian were out on a nature walk. While Julian left Elizabeth to find a special kind of moss, a little kid came near the lake she was at and drowned. She swam to the child, grabbed hold of him in the way she had been taught to and pulled him to shore, with the terrified kid nearly drowning her as well. On shore she showed the child's nurse how to do CPR or 'lifesaving work' and he was brought back to life. To reward her for her courageous action, the Meeting decided to make her an honourary monitor.
New characters[]
- Julian Holland
He is a chap with a 'devil-may-care' attitude. He has a quick brain which he uses to invent jokes and tricks. He is also one of Elizabeth's best friends. He doesn't want to work and achieve academic success at first but in the end he suddenly begins to work harder than ever before. This sudden change is due to his mother recovering from an illness. He has green eyes and black hair.
- Arabella Buckley
Arabella is an extremely spoiled, extremely rich girl who comes to stay at Elizabeth's during the holidays. Far more spoiled than Elizabeth was before Whyteleafe "cured" her of her naughtiness, Arabella seems to be obsessed with airs and graces and personal appearance. When she learns about how Whyteleafe is run so fairly because the children themselves run it, Arabella is mortified, especially by the rule that the children put all their money into the school funds and get an equal share of pocket-money. Despite her obsession with manners and proper behaviour, Arabella willingly breaks any rule which stops her from having her own way, from withholding a whole pound (pre-decimal) from the money-box, to organising a midnight feast for her birthday. She and Elizabeth do not get on from the start, especially when Arabella finds out that Elizabeth is her monitor and in charge of her. In the end though, once Elizabeth has redeemed herself by saving Col. Helston's young boy from drowning and asked for the whole school to go to the fair as a reward, even Arabella is happy to have Elizabeth as her Monitor once more.
- Martin Follett
Martin is another new pupil at Whyteleafe. His eyes are described as being wide and innocent, but set "a little close together" (one recurring and controversial theme of Blyton is to categorise villains by appearance). He is kind and generous and appears to help when pupils' property goes missing, by giving them money or sweets apparently of his own. But other than for his kindness he is apparently overlooked by the other pupils and does not seem to have any friends. Much later on it turns out that Martin is a thief who takes people's property in order to give to others, which he describes as "like what Robin Hood did". Disgusted by his confession, Elizabeth tells him he is not fit to be at Whyteleafe. However, horrified by Julian's mother's illness and his planting evidence on Julian to make him take the blame, Martin stands up and confesses at the following Meeting. He is forgiven, told to apologise to Julian for planting evidence on him, and to pay back all that he had taken from the other children. Rosemary decides to be his friend, saying "he'll need a friend" after he's confessed.
External links[]
- Novels by Enid Blyton
- 1945 British novels
- Novels set in boarding schools
- 1945 children's books
- George Newnes Ltd books