| Publisher | Quercus Children's Books |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 26 May 2022 |
| ISBN-10 | 178654136X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1786541369 |
| Format | paperback |
| Pages | 208 |
| Price | £ 6.99 |
The Spy at the Window
by
The year is 1939 and Justice Jones now has to contend both with evacuated boys and the possibility of spies in their midst at Highbury House Boarding School for the Daughters of Gentlefolk.
Review
Justice Jones is now 15 and in Form 5 at Highbury House Boarding School for the Daughters of Gentlefolk. Her return to the school she now loves, despite her initial misgivings, is overshadowed by the outbreak of war with Germany in September 1939. The windows are now covered by blackout blinds and all the girls have had to bring gasmasks to school, along with their health certificates and suitcases.
Sharing a dormy again with Stella, Rose, Letitia, Eva and Nora is fun and her other friend Dorothy, formerly a maid at the school, is now head girl and working for her Higher School Certificate, with her fees paid for by Justice’s lawyer dad Herbert. There are other changes too. The girls now have to do the work of the maids, who have joined the women’s forces, something that doesn’t go down well with Rose, And, in an even bigger change, they have to share their school with St Wilfrid’s School for Boys, who have been evacuated from the city.
As ever, it doesn’t take long for Justice to stumble on strange goings-on at the school, with voices coming from an empty room and a scary face appearing outside a window two storeys up. Naturally, Justice’s thoughts turn to the possibility of spies operating from the school and she’s determined to investigate.
Elly Griffith’s schoolgirl sleuth is growing up, no longer an uncertain 12-year-old in a strange environment. Three years after her arrival at Highbury House, she’s now games captain and more than capable of navigating the complexities of sharing a building with boys – not quite the different species that Eva seems to think – and even forming a tentative friendship with one of them.
In the Spy at the Window, Justice faces her greatest challenge yet when her beloved father goes missing and in a high stakes game there is no guarantee of a happy ending. Justice has already lost her mother to cancer and the thought of losing her father as well is terrifying. But with the support of her friends, Justice is as determined as ever to get to the bottom of the latest mysteries besetting her beloved school.
The series has moved on from its delightful Malory Towers and St Clare’s vibe to something closer to Elinor Brent-Dyer’s Chalet School stories and I was reminded strongly of The Chalet School in Exile, a book that left a deep impression on me with its powerful portrayal of anti-Semitism and the effects of war. I read it at a younger age than Justice is now and have returned to it several times since then.
In The Spy at the Window, the shocking reality of war is brought home to the Highbury girls with the news that their popular French teacher Monsieur Pierre, who returned to France to fight for his country, has been killed and there’s a strong feeling throughout the book that the stakes are now higher than ever and the threats are very real indeed.
Griffiths has succeeded in making that leap into darker territory without losing any of the irrepressible charm that first attracted me to her plucky, determined young sleuth.
Sharing a dormy again with Stella, Rose, Letitia, Eva and Nora is fun and her other friend Dorothy, formerly a maid at the school, is now head girl and working for her Higher School Certificate, with her fees paid for by Justice’s lawyer dad Herbert. There are other changes too. The girls now have to do the work of the maids, who have joined the women’s forces, something that doesn’t go down well with Rose, And, in an even bigger change, they have to share their school with St Wilfrid’s School for Boys, who have been evacuated from the city.
As ever, it doesn’t take long for Justice to stumble on strange goings-on at the school, with voices coming from an empty room and a scary face appearing outside a window two storeys up. Naturally, Justice’s thoughts turn to the possibility of spies operating from the school and she’s determined to investigate.
Elly Griffith’s schoolgirl sleuth is growing up, no longer an uncertain 12-year-old in a strange environment. Three years after her arrival at Highbury House, she’s now games captain and more than capable of navigating the complexities of sharing a building with boys – not quite the different species that Eva seems to think – and even forming a tentative friendship with one of them.
In the Spy at the Window, Justice faces her greatest challenge yet when her beloved father goes missing and in a high stakes game there is no guarantee of a happy ending. Justice has already lost her mother to cancer and the thought of losing her father as well is terrifying. But with the support of her friends, Justice is as determined as ever to get to the bottom of the latest mysteries besetting her beloved school.
The series has moved on from its delightful Malory Towers and St Clare’s vibe to something closer to Elinor Brent-Dyer’s Chalet School stories and I was reminded strongly of The Chalet School in Exile, a book that left a deep impression on me with its powerful portrayal of anti-Semitism and the effects of war. I read it at a younger age than Justice is now and have returned to it several times since then.
In The Spy at the Window, the shocking reality of war is brought home to the Highbury girls with the news that their popular French teacher Monsieur Pierre, who returned to France to fight for his country, has been killed and there’s a strong feeling throughout the book that the stakes are now higher than ever and the threats are very real indeed.
Griffiths has succeeded in making that leap into darker territory without losing any of the irrepressible charm that first attracted me to her plucky, determined young sleuth.
Reviewed 17 December 2022 by Linda Wilson
