This has been on my mind for the last few days in particular, after some, discourse, but has been something I think about on and off all the time.

By chance I came across a copy of the first Chalet School back when I was eight/nine and I was hooked. Yes, it’s a school story, but you know what? There’s a hell of a lot packed into those books.

They were written at the time they were set - the school starts out in Austria in 1925 - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer reacted to the things that happened there as she was writing them. There is no way that that wasn’t a hell of a wild ride for her (the school moved to Guernsey pre-WWII when it was too dangerous for them to stay in Austria.....and then....YEAH)

I knew from reading these books that people knew/saw the second world war coming. There are Germans who were against the N*zi party in the series, characters you knew died, suffered and did what they could to help people on the ground.

They are SHORT books, but there’s a lot packed in there. They are totally a product of their time, but they are also a lot more liberal than we are taught was acceptable at the time (there are specific things that are out right said, that are counter to opinions of the day - and it still amazes me that they were allowed to be published during WWII with some of the messages in them)

OH and Jack Maynard punched a N*zi before Captain America even existed - and he did it as a non-super hero (there was also A LOT of ‘as much as we would like to, we can not kick up a fuss because it will get people killed’ - the punching happens in a very specific situation - it’s in the book written JUST before/during the start of the war as well)

The Chalet School league is an amazing thing (and is how you find out about aspects of the war, and is why I side eye people who say ‘oh people didn’t know that was going down’ - look folks, if it’s in this school series written as the war was happening, by a lady in england, PEOPLE KNEW) (this article talks about the league: http://www.ju90.co.uk/edu.htm )

They aren’t perfect, but they are fascinating, and a good read for a view point of that era and the events going down. I also feel like reading them has effected how I tend to look at/react to texts that deal with certain issues. We aren’t super heroes, we can just do our best to help others and make things better rather than worse.