En este libro llegan dos compañeras nuevas Margery y Lucy, además de Erica que está en segundo curso. Lucy es una niña muy serena pero Margery y Erica darán serios problemas por su comportamiento. Al final Erica se va del colegio. Además llega la prima de las mellizas, Alison, una niña engreída y mimada que aprenderá varias lecciones en Santa Clara.

Hanni und Nanni war die erste Serie, die ich vollständig gesammelt habe, und so macht es Spaß, diese Bücher jetzt im Original zu lesen.

Im zweiten Band der Serie (also das zweite Trimester in St Clare, auf deutsch: Hanni und Nanni schmieden neue Pläne) bringen Isabel (Hanni) und Pat (Nanni) ihre Cousine Alison (Elli) mit nach St Clare (Lindenhof). Wie die Zwillinge im ersten Trimester hat auch Alison Probleme, sich anzupassen, doch der Teamgeist an St Clare's ändert auch ihre Einstellung.

Natürlich gibt es wieder eine Mitternachtsparty und mysteriöse Vorgänge - ein weiteres neues Mädchen, Margery, hält sich aus allem raus, brüskiert die anderen und ist auch schon um einiges älter. Das zweite neue Mädchen, Lucy, ist das genaue Gegenteil - und macht es allen leicht, mit ihr befreundet zu sein. Doch auch Lucy bringt ein Geheimnis mit.

Der Teamgeist steht im zweiten Band im Vordergrund - und natürlich werden die Geheimnisse um Margery und Lucy aufgedeckt und am Ende sind alle eine große Gemeinschaft.

Entspannendes Lesevergnügen für zwischendurch, wenn man über den pädagogischen Zeigefinger, der doch recht deutlich ist, hinweglesen kann. ( )

Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan are eager to return to St. Clare's boarding school for their second term in this sequel to The Twins at St. Clare's. Unfortunately, they are accompanied by their stuck-up cousin Allison, who has trouble fitting into the school body. Another problem pupil is the irritable Margery Fenworthy, who quickly alienates all of the other girls, and is sent to Coventry after spoiling their chances of being taken to a play, by her rude behavior to mistress. When some of Pat's things start to turn up deliberately vandalized - he sweater, her notebook - everyone blame Margery, when the real culprit is Erica, a 2nd former with a history of telling on the other girls. As Erica is sent home in disgrace, the girls learn that Margery has a very difficult home life, and Pat and Lucy try to lend a helping hand. Janet, in the meantime, decides to revenge herself on Mam'zelle, the French mistress, with unexpectedly serious results...

Published in 1942, the year after The Twins at St. Clare's, The O'Sullivan Twins is another entertaining, lighthearted schoolgirl romp. Like its predecessor, it was an assigned text in the class I took on the history of children's literature, while I was getting my masters. The story here is engaging, and the main characters (for the most part) sympathetic. I did wonder a bit at the fact that we are led to sympathize with Margery, and to understand that her bad behavior has a cause - the unhappy home life - but Erica seems to be depicted as naturally bad, with no real explanation given for her behavior, other than malice. A contradiction that stands out? I was also struck by the the fact that the episode involving Janet and Mam'zelle was so similar to the story of Miss Kennedy, in the previous book. Here again we have a schoolgirl prank gone wrong, and deeply affecting the teacher target, who turns out to have a sick relative, and to be human after all. It's not that I didn't enjoy this part of the story, but it felt like Blyton was recycling the same idea too quickly.

Although I didn't enjoy it quite as much as The Twins at St. Clare's, this was still an engaging read, and is one I would recommend to those who enjoyed the earlier book. I'll have to see about rereading these, perhaps, and carrying on with the series. ( )

I actually really enjoyed this one, which is surprising seeing that I thought the third installment was pretty dreadful. I enjoyed all the minutiae of school life and the lush descriptions of food and of lovely things. It's a very manichean world but Blyton does have some characters who do unexpected things which I suppose redeems her somewhat. It's a formulaic series but I thought The O'Sullivan Twins was a cut above - there's some really puzzling behaviour but for once the girls genuinely see how wrong they are. I'm glad the new girl (the O'Sullivan's cousin) ends up being very decent, which is a bit of a departure from stereotypes. There's also a very lovely girl in the book who gets the amount of praise she deserves - praise isn't very abundant in Blyton's world so this was a nice surprise. ( )

I remember loving this as a kid... I never read any of the others in the series, I do not know why... maybe I just never found them? ( )