Carola Storms the Chalet School Quiz

Answer: Jamaica

Carola's parents live in Nigeria because of her father's job, but they are unable to take her with them so her father's cousin Maud is looking after her. Maud loves to travel and takes Carola everywhere with her, meaning that Carola has never lived in the same place for long or been to school and made friends her own age, and Carola finally has enough and has an argument with her about going to Jamaica.

After meeting Biddy O'Ryan at Penny Rest, a boarding house frequented by 'Chalet School' characters, Carola has decided she wants to go to the Chalet School, but Maud refuses. Carola runs off to her room in tears and Maud leaves an angry letter outside her room telling her to apologise.

When they are shopping for the journey, Carola buys a makeshift uniform.

The governess Maud has booked for Carola is unable to come as she is injured due to a bicycle accident, which makes it easier for Carola to slip away while the passengers are boarding the boat and Maud is distracted.

Answer: In Canada with the Russell family

Biddy tells Joey about meeting Carola and how she told her about the Chalet School. We learn that Biddy has been living in Australia with Mavis Grant, a friend she made at Oxford University who was terminally ill. After Mavis' death, Biddy stayed with the family and taught their young children until the youngest was old enough to go to school (if you have the "Girls Gone By" edition of the book, there is a short fanfic at the end by Catharine Vaughan-Pow about Biddy's time in Australia, called "Where the Stars Are Strange"). Biddy wrote to Miss Annersley, asking if there were any teaching jobs going at the Chalet School, and Miss Annersley wrote back to say that Mary Burnett, the history mistress, had left to get married and offered Biddy the job as her replacement. Joey tells Biddy that Robin is in Switzerland, recovering from a nasty cold, and Margot is in Canada with the Russells (except David and Sybil, who are at school in the UK).

The Maynard family spent Christmas at the Quadrant with the Bettany family, the Venables sisters and Robin.

Answer: Carola's uniform is the wrong colour.

Carola's uniform is brown, although she is wearing a cardigan instead of the regulation blazer and hasn't got a tunic - the right uniform for girls her age - or badges. Carola gets the train from Southampton to Swansea and spots the coaches for Carnbach. Miss Slater, one of the escort mistresses, notices that Carola's beret doesn't have a badge on it and her name is not on the list, but sees an illegible scrawl at the bottom and assumes it must be her name.

When the girls are about to board the ferry and are given their suitcases, Miss Slater is confused to find that Carola has two suitcases and no trunk. Carola meets Clem and her friends, as well as Mary-Lou Trelawney, and tells them about her background, omitting the bit about running away to school.

When the girls are called into Prayers, Miss O'Ryan is introduced as the new history mistress and Miss Annersley, after hearing from Miss Slater, asks Carola to come and see her after Prayers, to Carola's shock.

Answer: "I didn't think!"

Carola says "I didn't think!" a lot during this book, including when Miss Annersley asks her why she didn't leave a note for Maud or write to her parents and ask them to let her go to school. Miss Annersley is not pleased with Carola because of all the worry and inconvenience she has caused and has Miss Dene send a radiogram to the ship to let Maud know Carola is safe.

In the meantime, the Chalet School will be keeping her on until they hear otherwise, and Carola is given various tests to determine her abilities, but Miss Annersley warns Carola not to tell the other girls, as they will either be unimpressed with her or get ideas. Carola's parents are contacted and give permission for her to stay on - her father, as it turns out, is an old university friend of Jack Maynard and has a reputation for being understanding - on condition that she works hard and behaves well. Dr Johnstone also flies out to St Briavel's to talk to Carola. Joey offers to look after Carola in her parents' stead, as Maud wants nothing more to do with her, and helps her get the items she needs.

Answer: Looking up the correct definition of the word and writing it out

As the standard of German in the school is sub-par, the staff put more emphasis on German days, much to the disgust of both the girls and Miss Slater, who has trouble with German. The staff become more vigilant about correcting the girls' German and although they do start to pick it up, they find it difficult (Carola herself has never learned German before coming to the Chalet School). Vi Lucy goes on a big rant about it, which includes a lot of slang, but unfortunately Miss Wilson hears her and makes her learn Goethe's 'Der Erlkönig' as punishment.

The prefects also get pulled up over the girls' use of slang, much to their dismay, and Nita Eltringham comes up with the suggestion of getting girls who use slang to look up the true meaning of the banned word and copy it out. Peggy Bettany, the Head Girl, also drops hints that the school are looking at opening a branch in the Bernese Oberland (which she, Dickie and several others end up attending a few books later), as they cannot return to Austria.

Answer: Signa Bjornessen

A small group of girls are left behind at school for various reasons, Carola among them. Dickie Christie invites them to her house to meet Kester Bellever, a local nature expert and friend of the Christie family, and Miss Burn and Miss Norman take them on a day trip to the castle and Bosherston Lily Ponds, where they have a picnic. Signa, one of the youngest girls there, sees a water rat and chases after it, only to slip and fall into the pond. Carola jumps in and keeps Signa's head above water while a passing doctor, Phil Graves, helps Miss Burn free Signa from the weeds. Signa, Carola and Miss Burn are all ill as a result of the freezing cold water, and Dr Graves and his sisters look after them at their house. Carola is allowed to go back to school but both Miss Burn and Signa, as well as her sister Thyra, stay with the Graves siblings for a bit longer. (As long-time readers will know, Dr Graves and Miss Burn will later marry.)

Answer: A horse that lives in a waterfall and eats little girls

Con Maynard has a habit of sleepwalking when she is upset or stressed, and Carola interrupts a staff meeting to say that she has found Con sleepwalking. Miss Annersley asks Joey, much to Joey's annoyance, if her daughters have eaten anything unusual, although neither Joey nor Daisy can think of anything.

Another night, Con wakes up her entire dormitory screaming. German measles breaks out in the school and the dormitories are rearranged, and Carola shares a dormitory with Con. Con has a sleepwalking attack and Carola goes to Miss O'Ryan for help, but when they go back to the room, Con is missing and they find her in the coal cellar. Jack Maynard makes enquiries and finds out that Con has been having nightmares about a horse that lives in a waterfall and kidnaps little girls. Jack reassures Con that such a creature could not exist, and when he tells Miss Annersley, she recognises that it is a Norse myth and guesses that Signa must have been telling stories during playtime.

She tells Signa not to tell the other girls any more scary stories, and Con subsequently stops sleepwalking.

Answer: Cod liver oil

The Lower Fifth girls start off by frying fish and chips, which the school eat for lunch, and Clem comes up with the idea of making doughnuts for tea, as she has lived in the Rockies and remembers them being fried in fat. Frau Mieders has a book of Canadian recipes which has a recipe for doughnuts in it.

As the girls do not have enough vegetable oil, and they can't use the vegetable oil they used for frying fish, Clem suggests olive oil. Carola goes to get what she thinks is olive oil from Matron's cupboard, although the label is illegible.

The girls coat the doughnuts in sugar and fill them with rhubarb jam, and wonder why the kitchen stinks of fish. When they serve the doughnuts at afternoon tea, Mary-Lou eats one and rushes out. Dickie assumes Mary-Lou is just being greedy but other girls complain that the doughnuts taste of fish. Matron arrives and informs Carola that what she thought was olive oil was actually cod liver oil, and advises the girls not to eat the doughnuts.

Answer: Scotland

Tom Gay has made a dolls' house, with other members of the Fifths providing furniture and other accessories, and Carola comes up with an idea for the competition to win the dolls' house: guessing the number of materials used to make both the house itself and its contents.

The Fifths decide to pick Scotland as their country of choice, so that the UK can be represented, and wear plaids and kilts, as well as wrapping goods in handmade tartan wrapping paper and decorating their stall with gorse and thistles.

The Kindergarten, who traditionally run the Lucky Dip, are Eskimos; the Second Forms are running a bric-ā-brac stall with a Chinese theme; the Third Forms are Maoris and are selling sweets and cakes on their stall; the Fourth Forms are Native Americans and have a needlework stall in a tepee; the Sixth Form are Persians, with a fresh produce stall; and the Special Sixth dress up as Indian women in saris and serve tea. Con wins the dolls' house, guessing thirty-seven materials out of a total of forty-eight.

Answer: Sets her on fire with a cigarette

After the sale is over, Len and Carola bring Miss Cochrane's purchases to the music room, where she is smoking a cigarette and reading a letter. She is short with the girls and carelessly tosses her burning cigarette towards the fireplace, but it lands in the basket Len is holding and sets her Chinese dress on fire. Grizel throws a rug on the basket and Carola puts out the fire on Len's dress with her bare hands, burning herself badly. Grizel is horrified by what she has done and is badly shaken, and tells Miss O'Ryan that she has received a letter from her stepmother refusing to let her have any of her inheritance from her father until she is thirty-five. Grizel badly wants to go into business with her old friend Deira O'Hagen, who is now in New Zealand, but cannot do so without the money. Miss Annersley offers Grizel financial backing until she can use her own money in the business, and Grizel plans to leave at the end of term and sail to New Zealand. Miss O'Ryan pleads with Miss Annersley not to be angry with Grizel and to talk to Joey, and although Joey is angry with Grizel at first, she forgives her when she sees how upset Grizel is.

She then goes to see Carola, whose hands are badly burned, and thanks her for saving Len's life.