Retirement Rescue - The Swish of the Curtain

The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown
Published - 1941
Pages – 308
In print? – Yes. Longwater books reprinted this in 2006
THEN – 4.5 stars out of 5
NOW – 4 stars out of 5

Jacket description:
When seven bored children discover an abandoned chapel in their home town, they decide to renovate it and to form the Blue Door Theratre Company. The talented and resourceful group soon discover that they are serious about their theatrical ambitions, but will their parents stand in their way?
This classic children’s novel remains a timeless inspiration to any young reader with a passion for the performing arts.

Seven children (all of whom have some special talent or other – singing, composing, dressmaking etc) set up their own theatre company. Yes, it’s more than a little unbelievable, but it’s also the sort of thing every child would have enjoyed. It’s also set in a time when such a thing is less hard to believe. The Swish of the Curtain is very quaint, old-fashioned but still charming and holds its appeal for children. The kids, especially nine-year-old Maddy, are some of the best characterised I’ve ever read, having an old-fashioned innocence along with extra maturity, especially when dealing with their nemesis Mrs Potter-Smith, head of the Women’s Institute. Mrs Potter-Smith (or ‘Smither-Pot,’ as Maddy refers to her) is constantly out to undermine the children’s plays because people enjoy them more than hers. Some critics have said that they talk as if they’re older than they should be, but Pamela Brown was only 14 herself when she wrote this. The Swish of the Curtain is definitely a children’s classic, and will appeal to many children today.

‘An answering thud was heard offstage, and Mrs Potter-Smith puffed on, wearing a Greek tunic, with primroses in her hair which she had “let down” for the occasion. She flung out her plump arms towards the audience, declaiming, “I am the Spirit of Spring!”
The ginger girl stuffed her hankie in her mouth, and Maddy whispered confidentially to Sandra, “Are we supposed to laugh?”’ – page 10-11

'“Personally, when I was eight, a really juicy murder appealed to me as much as anything,” Maddy told them.' – page 136

Retirement Rescue - Prove Yourself A Hero

Prove Yourself a Hero by K. M. Peyton

Published - 1978
Pages – 173
In print? – No. But see if you see a copy secondhand, snatch it up.

THEN - 4.5 stars out of five

NOW - 4.5 stars out of five

This was my favourite re-read book for years. It’s definitely my most-travelled because it’s so small and light.

Jacket description:
One can never prepare to be kidnapped: to anticipate the terror, exhaustion and violence: or to understand the disorientation and imbalance that accompanies the return to freedom – if one is lucky.
Jonathan Meredith’s disappearance, apart from anything else, was annoying. It cost half a million pounds and mucked up a lot of arrangements, particularly his parents’. And for Jonathan, things would never be the same again.

You can tell this book is old – look at the use of ‘one’ and the colons! But, the writing doesn’t feel dated. In fact, reading it now gives the impression that it’s a book written recently, but SET in the past. Everyone has their strange favourite book-themes, mine is kidnapping. This book is special in that doesn’t just deal with the kidnapping – that takes up about half of the book – it also deals with the aftermath. Jonathan, the son of a business tycoon, is extremely claustrophobic, but he faces his capture and the prospect of death very maturely. This is as good a book as I remember it being when I first read it.

'He didn’t see how he was going to even notice if he lost consciousness, because there was so little to show for being alive, except the spreading pain of cramps which he would have been all too happy to forego. There was, curiously, no sense of time: time was only as long as he could breathe, and time was running out.' - Page 22

'He could see one solitary star between the clouds, and it’s unwinking eye transfixed him with this extraordinary sense of his own being, because shortly he wouldn’t be.' - Page 65

Operation Retirement Rescue

When Adele posted her wonderful idea of Operation Retirement Rescue last week, I loved it. It’s always good to appreciate old books, which is part of the reason why I started Series Spotlight.

Before May begins I would like you to post reviews for 1-2 YA titles that -
1) were published more than five years ago,
2) hold fond memories, and
3) post the icon somewhere in your review.


I'm extending this to mean books that I READ 5 years ago, not old ones that I've read recently. That means only books that I read when I was 13 or younger. I thought it might be interesting for people to see what I had back then. I've been through my bookshelves and written a list of everything still on there (ie - not in boxes or passed on to younger brothers) that I owned 5 years ago.

So, in roughly chronological order (earliest to latest) I give you

What Was on my Shelf 5 Years Ago That Still is Now:

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah
Prove Yourself a Hero by K. M. Peyton
Promise Song by Linda Holeman
Set of Sharon Creech books
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin
The Wind Singer by William Nicholson
Wings over Delft by Aubrey Flegg
Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown
Beauty by Robin McKinley
Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley
Finding Cassie Crazy Jaclyn Moriarty

I'll be writing mini-reviews for as many as possible before May, except for ones I've already spotlighted. I'll also rate them because you know, probably not all of these books are as good now as they were to 5-years-younger-me. What was everyone else reading five years ago?