What do you think?
Rate this book
The Diary of the Naughtiest Girl
Inspired by Enid Blyton's bestselling school series The Naughtiest Girl - this is the hilarious diary of the naughtiest pupil there's ever been. Fans of Tom Gates will love this!'Mum says pupils aren't allowed to take mobile devices to Whyteleafe ... excuse me? It's the twenty-first century! What next? Ride to school on a penny-farthing?'When Elizabeth Allen is packed off to boarding school, armed with nothing but a journal to write in for entertainment, she is NOT impressed. How will she survive without her home comforts, especially her pony Ross (the only boy she has ever truly loved)? Elizabeth comes up with a cunning she will be so naughty that she gets sent home . . . But then Elizabeth discovers a love for music and makes her first ever friend ... perhaps school life might not be as bad as she thought?The Diary of the Naughtiest Girl is written by bestselling author Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Alex T. Smith, acclaimed creator of the Claude books.
211 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 8, 2016
1 person is currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Jeanne Willis
425 books115 followersJeanne Willis was born in St Albans and trained as an advertising copywriter at Watford College. She worked for various agencies creating press adverts and TV, cinema and radio commercials. She is now a full-time writer and has published over 80 books. Her hobbies include gardening, reading (non-fiction), natural history and collecting caterpillars. Jeanne has also worked on scripts for TV, including POLLY POCKET and THE SLOW NORRIS, and a pilot TV series for DR XARGLE. She lives in North London with her husband and two children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 15, 2016
The original, The Naughtiest Girl, books were published in the 1940’s and written, of course, by Enid Blyton, with “The Naughtiest Girl in the School” the first in the series (1940). This novel is ‘reimagined’ by Jeanne Willis and is loosely based on the original, but brought very much up to date. Now, I have to say that I am not always a fan of original books/characters being re-written by another author. For example, the recent Poirot ‘sequels’ by Sophie Hannah totally lost any real feeling of the original characters, and also any sense of period or place. As such, I felt some trepidation when my daughter wanted to read this – especially as she loved the originals.
However, having read this with her, I have to say that this is a wonderful book. It uses the same character and Elizabeth Allen is – as in the original books – a wilful, spoilt and very naughty girl, who is sent to boarding school. What is obvious is that Jeanne Willis liked the original stories and she has captured the feeling of the Enid Blyton books and made them more modern, without losing the essence of the characters and spirit of the books. Of course, you can argue that they did not need to be modernised, but, some children may find this more relevant and it may lead them on to read the original stories.
My daughter said that she enjoyed this very much and, after a couple of chapters, she thought of this as a totally different book from the original. Hopefully, this book will have a sequel and it will be interesting to see whether this series begins to develop in its own way, or whether it continues along the same lines as the Enid Blyton books. They are different and yet very similar and this is very much a homage to the original and yet has an easy to read, diary format and a much more modern style in terms of the things that Elizabeth talks about. Overall, a really good read and one which will, hopefully, interest people in reading Enid Blyton, if they haven’t already.
However, having read this with her, I have to say that this is a wonderful book. It uses the same character and Elizabeth Allen is – as in the original books – a wilful, spoilt and very naughty girl, who is sent to boarding school. What is obvious is that Jeanne Willis liked the original stories and she has captured the feeling of the Enid Blyton books and made them more modern, without losing the essence of the characters and spirit of the books. Of course, you can argue that they did not need to be modernised, but, some children may find this more relevant and it may lead them on to read the original stories.
My daughter said that she enjoyed this very much and, after a couple of chapters, she thought of this as a totally different book from the original. Hopefully, this book will have a sequel and it will be interesting to see whether this series begins to develop in its own way, or whether it continues along the same lines as the Enid Blyton books. They are different and yet very similar and this is very much a homage to the original and yet has an easy to read, diary format and a much more modern style in terms of the things that Elizabeth talks about. Overall, a really good read and one which will, hopefully, interest people in reading Enid Blyton, if they haven’t already.
June 23, 2018
A very quick and fun read! Highly recommend
August 13, 2025
A fun read! The author has kept the original plot but added new characters for more diversity and modernized the behavior as well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2024
This is one of my favourite books of all time, and I have read it SO many times! It’s hilarious and stays faithful to the original Naughtiest girl books but is also unique. I love all of the characters and I especially love Elizabeth’s narrative, it’s really funny to read. I would definitely recommend this!!!
February 19, 2018
good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews