Review: "Alison on the Trail" by Catherine Connor (Magic Attic Club)

Alison on the Trail by Catherine Connor
Originally published 1995
★★

In school, Alison's impulsivity and competitiveness lead to a minor shock—but out on the trail, with a crew of young children relying on her, she finds that the stakes are much higher.

I don't remember reading this one as a child, but I love me a hiking book so thought I'd pick it up. Even after reading a few of these, I can't really tell the girls apart, but I guess Alison is one of the more strong-willed ones? In any case, she finds herself leading a group of seven-year-olds on a multi-hour hike through the woods, reliant on a map and some trail signs and her own good judgement...if she can in fact rely on that last one.

This is a book where I officially feel old: I probably would have enjoyed this as a kid, but as an adult all I can think is who is letting this completely untried child take a bunch of even younger children into the woods? Alison has a lot of knowledge about wilderness safety, which is never explained (something of a theme in these books—the girls seem to pop through the mirror with whatever skills and knowledge they need, though whether or not they retain any of it on the other side is another question), but she also makes rash decisions like taking what she thinks is a shortcut, without a map, in territory completely unfamiliar to her. Because this is a children's book, things turn out just fine, but not without some genuinely dangerous moments (literally, there are multiple chances for these children to die), and Alison gets to wave it off with an "Oops! So sorry. I've learned my lesson!" I'm not sure what I would have liked to see here, but at least a horrified adult or two?

This makes me think more generally about consequences in this series—the girls treat each scenario as though the consequences are real (which is good), but I don't know if we ever really know if they...are. Some of their adventures take place in the real world or something close to it, but some of them take place in magical scenarios, and as far as I can tell the books don't really pose (or answer) questions about what real-life ramifications these adventures have (if a girl had drowned in Alison's adventure, would she be able to find something about it in the paper when she got back to her normal life?). I mean...obviously this is outside the scope and age range of these books. But gosh. I'm not usually in it for the moral of the story, but I hope Alison learned her lesson in this one.