The 1970s Don't Have A Monopoly On Ugly Covers For Girls' School Stories
Posted 20 April 2009 in Books by Catriona
In the earlier post on ugly 1970s’ book covers for girls’ school stories, we got to talking about ugly 1980s’ and 1990s’ covers.
And I thought, “Wait, I have some of those!” And so here they are.
Actually, this one isn’t ugly, as such:
But can you imagine the teachers at Malory Towers putting up with such sloppiness? Particularly the hair: I remember distinctly that in this actual book, Gwendoline has her hair tied into pigtails by Matron because it ends up falling around her ears—much like the hair of that girl second from the right.
Plus, I really don’t see the point of updating the covers when the story inside is still so intensely 1940s.
But with this next one, the cover is very much of its time. The book was published in 1984:
And, wow, but that’s one 1980s’ cover. The sweatband! The random aeroplane (with speed lines)! The purple kneesocks! And what I love most about this is the fact that their hockey team is called the Trebizon Tramps. It may have been a simpler time, but that’s not actually that recent a slang term.
I have a later version of this book, too, from 1988:
I don’t know which is worse, but I do know there’s something seriously wrong with the thighs on that girl on the left. And I love the fact that the girls have all been rendered practically indistinguishable, despite the fact that they’re different nationalities.
ME: Honey, guess the nationality of these girls.
NICK: Eastern European.
ME: Really?
NICK: No. I can’t tell!
ME: The one on the right is Afro-Caribbean.
NICK: Wow.
That about sums it up.
But this one from 1995, is by far the ugliest of all:
I mean, that is just hideous, isn’t it? I see no redeeming characteristics at all—and I think that boy on the left has just had his neck snapped by the kid behind him. This is The Naughtiest Girl Again with vampires. (Yes, I associate neck-snapping exclusively with vampires. Blame Buffy.)
And it’s a shame, really, because it’s a Dean edition, and the Dean editions from the mid-1980s, when I first read them, were actually rather cute:
Plus, this terribly ugly one still has the original (Dean) illustrations, and I’ve always thought the line drawings for the Naughtiest Girl series were beautiful:
Certainly more beautiful than that revolting cover.
Share your thoughts [4]
1
Celia wrote at Apr 20, 11:48 am
I’ve never read any of the Trebizon books (my boarding school reading is pretty much limited to Blyton & Chalet School), but am rather intrigued by the first cover there – hockey! Aeroplanes! Mad gypsy fortune tellers!
And yes, that Naughtiest Girl Again wins worst cover of all time – the Naughtiest Girl looks like she’s melting.
2
Catriona wrote at Apr 20, 12:34 pm
The Trebizon books are an attempt to update the genre: they were published between 1978 and 1994. I didn’t come across them myself until very recently, when I found them at a secondhand book sale: I do prefer the much earlier ones.
The updating seems to be limited to the idea that the girls all have boyfriends from a local boys’ school (which would have made Blyton die of embarrassment) and they don’t, as far as I know, play lacrosse: lots of hockey and tennis.
(The girl with the disturbing thighs above is a burgeoning tennis star. I also have a cover with her in a disturbingly short tennis dress from a book called, oddly, The Tennis Term At Trebizon. I can’t help but think she must be popular among the spectators, because that is one disturbingly short hockey skirt.)
Sadly, the gypsy fortune teller is only another girl who dresses up as a mad gypsy fortune teller. For real mad gypsy fortune tellers, you have to go back to May Wynne’s The Term of Many Adventures.
3
Steph Smith wrote at Apr 21, 09:12 am
I’m distressed with TNGITS cover. It was my favourite book as a little one and I know if I were 10 years younger the cover would have put me right off. My neice couldn’t finish the `Naughtiest Girl is a Moniter’ recently..she found the injustice in the story unbearable. Kids of today???
There was a schoolgirl book about a Donna
Parker – she was cool.
4
Catriona wrote at Apr 21, 09:26 am
Hi, Steph! Good to see you commenting on the blog!
I still think the funniest criticism of the way in which Whyteleafe was run was Green Wing, where the seriously messed-up anaesthetist had gone to a school that he insisted was called “Whit-liff,” though his friend said, “No, I’ve seen it written down and it said ‘White-leaf’.”
I don’t know if that was meant to be an Enid Blyton reference, but I took it as such—and he really didn’t come out of Whyteleaf with his sanity intact.
I may—I’m not sure I want to admit this, but here goes: I may have the Donna Parker books. As funky little hardcovers with pictorial boards.
That is, they would be.
If I had them.