‘Chalet School Fete’ is the second part of the original book entitled ‘A Genius at the Chalet School’, so if you have either the hardback version, or the 2007 ‘Girls Gone By’ edition, then you won’t need this slim addition.

As a stand-alone book this is rather unsubstantial; the book continues the story of Nina, the 'genius' pianist of the title of the first part. There's a crisis in the early chapter of this which involves Nina’s cousin, but that’s never really resolved. Nina herself has already become friendly and likeable, and for the school it’s a fairly ordinary term leading up to another summer fete, which is described, as usual, in rather too much detail.

Still, it’s not really fair to judge this little book on its own merits as it needs to be read as part of the full story, and as such it works reasonably well. It's not one of the best in the series, and could be missed out when reading through them all. But it’s a pleasant enough story to while away an hour or two, even though it wouldn't make much sense unless read directly after the first part of the original book. ( )