The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor
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.
 First edition | |
| Author | Enid Blyton |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Kenneth Lovell |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Naughtiest Girl series |
| Genre | School |
| Publisher | George Newnes |
Publication date | 1945 |
| Media type | Print () |
| OCLC | 43822982 |
| Preceded by | The Naughtiest Girl Again |
| Followed by | Here's the Naughtiest Girl! |
Plot summary
Elizabeth, the titular naughtiest girl, is chosen as a class monitor at her boarding school Whyteleafe school.
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.