I read Autumn Term in my childhood and then as an adult spent some time looking at descriptions of the rest of the books longingly before finally sorting out some inter-library loans, and the thing that struck me at that stage as being different about the first one was Lawrie. I was a little taken aback by Lawrie being described in the kind of terms Lawrie tends to be described in, because at this stage I think there's much less difference between her and Nicola. Nicola isn't so distinctly the centre of the series, and Lawrie isn't so distinctly less capable than Nicola. Forest didn't reinvent Lawrie entirely, but I feel she's not the gloriously convincing babyish cowardly unempathetic talented fantasist she is in the rest of the books.