The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor

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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.

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Plot summary

It's the last few weeks of the Summer vacation and Elizabeth is getting a bit bored and lonely, so her mother springs a surprise on her in the form of Arabella. Elizabeth is excited but soon finds out she doesn't like Arabella very much and the dislike is mutual, but Elizabeth decides to do her best to hide her dislike, telling herself "Be careful, Elizabeth Allen. You're very good at making enemies, but as you found last term, that only makes things difficult for you and your friends. Arabella's a silly, empty-headed doll. You let Whyteleafe deal with her and don't try to cure her all by yourself", Thankfully school restarts soon and Elizabeth won't have to have anything to do with Arabella unless she wants to. As well as Arabella, there are three new students that term; two boys and one girl. Martin seems a pleasant enough chap. Julian is an excellent mimic and very, very clever but he is very untidy, lazy and lackadaisical and Rosemary is a nice girl, but is very timid and weak. Elizabeth soon sees Julian right at the bottom of the form and says "Julian, you really ought to try to be top" "Couldn't be bothered" he says "Who wants to learn about the tallest mountains? I'm not going to climb them. Who wants to learn history dates? I'll forget them when I grow up, so I couldn't care less. Lessons are pointless and anyway, you're just telling me to work hard because you're a goody-goody monitor." Elizabeth goes to walk off in a huff, but Julian says "Oh, c'mon, I'm only teasing. Your friend Joan is in a higher form now, so you won't see much of her for quite a while, so why don't you make friends with me?" and Elizabeth does so. At the next meeting, Julian makes a noise like a bubbling saucepan and poor Elizabeth is stuck between a rock and a hard place. She knows she should report him, but he's a new boy and her new best friend. She glares at him and he stops and William says "It is not funny to hold up a school meeting" and Elizabeth takes the money box round and Arabella does not put all her money in; she keeps a pound to herself and Rosemary gives the game away when she says that peppermint chocolates are such good value. Jenny goes to have a look in Arabella's cubicle and sees the chocolates in her music case "Arabella has kept money back and spent it all on chocolates! How mean" she tells her form in disgust "Well" says Harry "let's show her what we think of her! I bet at the next meeting she'll put all her money in the box." and everyone gives Arabella the cold shoulder and at the next meeting she says "The whole form is making fun of me for no reason that I can see." William asks someone to explain why they're giving Arabella such a hard time and Jenny says "Well, William, Arabella kept money back for herself and spent it all on chocolates" William consults Elizabeth about it, but she has to say she doesn't really know what Jenny is talking about. Arabella is made to give all her change to Elizabeth and will only have ten pence that week. When the meeting breaks up she says "Why didn't someone tell me about Arabella? I felt like a fool!" and Jenny explains that she thought Arabella was her friend. One day, Rosemary has to say her money keeps disappearing and no, she hasn't got a hole in her pocket, so Elizabeth marks a coin to see if it disappears and if so, who could have been mean enough to take it and on the next rainy day, the children spin coins and Julian has the marked coin. Elizabeth tackles him over it and Julian denies having stolen it and they split up. Arabella spreads a rumour and Julian plays tricks on Elizabeth to pay her back. In Miss Ranger's class, the books seem to leap off the desk by themselves and Miss Ranger is not pleased "Go out of the room, Elizabeth! Once was probably an accident, twice may have been but not three times. You're a monitor and you should know that that sort of behaviour is not acceptable in a class room" Elizabeth goes and horror of horrors, here comes Rita "I was sent outside, but it was for something that wasn't my fault" she explains but Rita says "Don't let it happen again. You know that monitors should not do things that get them sent outside". In the French teacher's class, mysterious drops of water fall on Elizabeth's head "Ooh" she says "what is happening?" The French teacher thinks Elizabeth is horsing around and says "One more sound out of you and you go outside. This is a classroom, not a circus" and Elizabeth makes up her mind not to make another sound; she'd rather get saturated than sent outside again. At the end of class, Harry says "Elizabeth, how could you behave like that? Let me feel your head." and unfortunately it's as dry as a bone, so Elizabeth doesn't have a leg to stand on. Arabella's birthday comes up and she decides to have a midnight feast and doesn't tell Elizabeth who that night hears a terrific BANG! and when she goes to investigate, she sees Julian with biscuits in his hand "Julian" she says "you're stealing biscuits now! Put them back at once!" and in the process makes an awful noise, so the midnight feast has to be cancelled. Julian puts sneezing powder in Elizabeth's French book and she starts sneezing helplessly. She is told to stop and has to say "I can't A-TISH-OOOOOO help it" and is sent outside again and William comes along, sees her not sneezing there and thinks Elizabeth was just playing a childish prank. She reports Julian for stealing the biscuits, but Arabella explains that they were part of the midnight feast menu and poor Elizabeth realizes that she was wrong about at least the biscuits. William says "Elizabeth, you have accused Julian wrongly of stealing and also twice you have been thrown out of the room for playing stupid pranks. That is not the behaviour of a monitor, so you must step down and we will choose someone else in your place." Elizabeth rushes out in tears and Julian begins to feel a bit guilty "I know she accused me wrongly of stealing, but she didn't really play the fool in class; her behaviour was really the results of my tricks" thinks Julian. Elizabeth is summoned to William's office and she explains why she thought Julian was a thief. Julian is then summoned and says "Oh, I see. A lolly of Elizabeth's fell out of my pocket, did it? And there was a marked coin in my pocket? So that's why Elizabeth accused me of stealing, eh? Well, I can now see her point, but I never laid a finger on her lollies or money; someone must have tried to frame me. Anyway, it was not Elizabeth's fault she got kicked out of class twice." He turns to Elizabeth and says "Elizabeth, I put some springs under your books and that was what made them fly off your desk. I also put some pellets above your head so they'd leak water on you. And I put sneezing powder in your French book." Elizabeth laughs when she remembers what happened, her books flying off the desk in particular and she laughs "You're a real sport" says Julian "I never thought you'd laugh when I told you about the tricks I played on you. Now I like you almost as much as I did before, so will you be my friend again?" "Oh, yes" she says. Elizabeth is a bit mopey and serious for a few days, so Julian plays a trick in the science class and everyone ends up rolling in the aisles with laughter and suddenly everyone's friendly again. At the next meeting William says "Julian, you should use your brains for work and not just for jokes and tricks." "Oh, I couldn't care less about being bottom" Julian replies rudely "I see" says William kindly "but I must warn you punishment will come for your laziness and it will, alas be a terrible one" It's soon time for the kids' end of term outing and Julian's mother isn't there yet and Julian reckons the car must have broken down, but he soon finds out the reason for his mother's lateness is far more sinister; she's suddenly very, very ill. Julian races out into the garden and when Elizabeth finds him, he wails "My mother's very, very ill; she mightn't live. Why didn't I use my brains for good, worthwhile work instead of only for tricks and jokes? I know my mother couldn't care less about grades, but I wish now I'd been top instead of bottom. William was right, punishment was awaiting me and it could not have been a more terrible one." Martin starts to feel very uncomfortable and finally decides to own up that he was the one who was the thief and who framed Julian "You horrid thief!" she cries "You nasty, beastly, rotten, double-faced thief! So it was you who put that coin and those lollies of mine into Julian's pocket! Think of all the damage you've done. Because of you I thought that Julian was a thief and I accused him and he played tricks that got me sent outside and I lost my position as a monitor. How could you sleep at night?" getting up and walking away. She goes to the music practice room and Rosemary comes in "Why were you so beastly to Martin?" she asks "You know he's so kind and generous" and Elizabeth thinks "Martin really is a puzzle. How can one person be both kind and unkind; both mean and generous? It just doesn't make sense." The maths class is interrupted by a phone call for none other than Julian and he comes back and says "My mum's better. MY MUM'S BETTER!" Miss Ranger lets the class off early; nobody will be able to do any more lessons; they're too hyper. That night, Elizabeth simply cannot sleep so she goes to have a look at "William's Big Book" to see if there's any explanation for Martin's strange behaviour and she finds an article about a girl named Tessa who stole things to give to others to win their favour and that's basically what Martin does. Elizabeth confronts Martin and he says "I feel simply dreadful, Elizabeth. What can I do to make things better?" "Well, there's only one thing to do and a coward like you would never do it. You ought to own up at the next school meeting.", and lo and behold, just as the meeting is about to break up a voice says "Hang on. I've got something to say" and it is Martin "William" he says "I was the one who stole the biscuits, cakes, money and lollies and I planted the marked coin on Julian so everyone would think it was him, not me. I would never have owned up except Julian's mother was ill and I hated to think I did that to someone who was so miserable. Also, someone said I was a coward and I'm not really" "Aww" thinks Elizabeth "look at that. He so badly wanted people to like him and they don't seem to, and now he's had to confess something that will make them dislike him even more. That was a brave thing to do.", standing up and saying "Well, it wasn't the usual kind of stealing, it wasn't just badness. You see, he stole things to give to people to win their favour. There's an article in the book about a girl, whose name was Tessa who behaved just like him. Wait a minute and I'll find it.", turning to the right page "How did you know about Tessa?" asks William "Well, Martin told me all he'd done and I was disgusted" she says "but all the same, the kids say he's kind and I wondered what made Martin tick, so I looked in the book and found that." "Well, Martin" says William kindly "you can't just buy friends; you have to earn them, so don't steal any more things from your fellows; just be kind, generous and fun to be with and you'll soon have more friends than you can count." The meeting finally breaks up and there's only time for an apology from Martin to Julian and a quick dinner. Near the end of the term, Elizabeth gets more than she bargained for on her walk with Julian when some kid falls into the lake. She rescues him and comes back to school dripping wet. She changes her clothes and saunters back to dinner, not wanting any fuss, but at the next school meeting they hear about the heroic deed. "It was Elizabeth" says Julian "it was our Elizabeth" Everyone cheers her on and Elizabeth is asked to choose a reward and she says "Well, there's a fair on in a nearby town, so could you please let everyone have a few days off to go there?" and Miss Best agrees. Julian then stands up and says "And please make Elizabeth a monitor again; she deserves it.", and his request is also granted

Maps The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor

New characters

Julian Holland

He is a chap with a 'devil-may-care' attitude. He has marvelous brains 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.

External links

• Enid Blyton Society page

Source of article : Wikipedia