Book review: Just William by Richmal Crompton

The fiftieth book I read in 2015 was Just William by Richmal Crompton.  Published in 1922, it is the first in a series of William Brown books, about a Dennis-the-Menace-type boy and his adventures, most of which heap embarrassment on his hapless family.

These stories are very dated, so much so that one can't help but see them in black-and-white in one's head.  What they remind me of more than anything is the old "Little Rascals"/"Our Gang" serials.  Really: one story deals with William getting a crush on his teacher that could be Jackie Cooper mooning over Miss Crabtree.  Interestingly, the "Our Gang" shorts began filming in 1922 as well.

I read the book wondering if it might be something Eric might like, but the language and conventions are too old-fashioned for him to grasp.  Crompton apparently spent most of her life churning out new installments of the series, with the last published posthumously in 1970.  I wonder if William changed with the times as much as did Ramona Quimby.  Whatever the social problem du jour was, the poor Quimbys always seemed to suffer from it....