Jennings' Diary
ISBN: 9780755101634
Description
It is the Easter term at Linbury Court School and Jennings has been promised five pounds by his aunt if he keeps up his diary every day. When he and Darbishire devise a code for entries, things really start to happen - the nasty incident of Wilkins's mark book is only one of them.
Reviewed on 18th August 2010
I barely remember any of this Jennings book from when I was younger, which made it a good read today. The tale of Jennings' diary ties together four major events this term from the missing cufflink to the form three museum.
My copy was, disappointingly, the 1980s 'updated' text, which puts the coinage into metric and makes another part of the story seem less likely. However I don't imagine much else has changed, and perhaps with a goal of modern children reading for themselves it is not too bad a change to make.
I found this to be the best flowing of the Jennings books I've reread so far as an adult. The overall concept of the diary is used very well to tie what would otherwise be separate strands together. This is one of the things that makes me love Jennings far more than Just William books, which are mostly just a stream of disconnected short stories.
I think it would be fair to say this is one of the best novels in the set, although if I couldn't remember it, maybe there is better to come.
