The Atomic Weight of Secrets, by Eden Unger Bowditch

The Atomic Weight of Secrets,  or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black, by Eden Unger Bowditch (Bancroft Press, March, 2011, middle grade, 339 pages) is the first book of The Young Inventors Guild, a historical sci fi story of five brilliant children.  Their parents were extraordinary too, so much so that one day in 1903, when the mysterious men in black came calling, they had to go.   But the men in black had a plan for the children too, one that involved sending them off to rural Ohio, where they went to their own special boarding school, under the loving care of Miss Brett (the first adult to ever read out loud to them--the brilliant parents were too busy being brilliant to have much time for their kids). 

Twelve-year-old Jasper Modest (a young inventor) and his six-year-old sister, Lucy (gifted with a perfect memory), were taken from London.  Nine-year-old Wallace Banneker, determined to follow in the footsteps of his family of African American scientists, inventors, and mathematicians, was taken from New York.  Twelve-year-old Noah Canto-Sagas, brilliant both mentally and musically, was taken from Toronto.  And the oldest child, the thirteen-year-old Faye Vigyanveta, taken from the luxurious home of her parents, Indian scientists, is fiercely determined to find out the secret of the Mysterious Men in Black who have torn apart their lives for no clear reason.

And they are indeed Mysterious.  "In black," for them, includes black tutus.  Black bear suites.  Black scarfs concealing their faces, which are shrouded by black sombreros, Easter bonnets, and the like.  All manner of grab bag bits of clothing, concealing them utterly.   And they are not exactly forthcoming to the children--which is to say, they don't say anything. 

Although the children's strange school is a virtual prison, and their weekend trips to loving foster mothers carefully orchestrated to make escape impossible, this bizarre situation is one where the children can thrive, becoming each other's first true friends.   All the delicious food they want, adult attention and love, and beautiful lab equipment.

Except that there is no getting around the fact that their parents are missing (and though they might have been distant, un-nurturing parents for the most part, this is still disturbing), the men in black are their jailors, and if they want answers, they are going to have to escape.  And being brilliant young inventors, the answer comes to them--they must build a flying machine...

This is a book that requires from its reader an acceptance of the bizarre.  The children's situation is like a dream, and the reader knows no more about the men in black then they do (although this reader, at least, has read more science fiction than the kids have, back in 1903, and has a theory....what do they actually look like, under all that black concealment???). 

Acceptance is also required regarding the pacing of the book.  We meet all five right at the start of things, just as they are about to try to escape.  But then the author goes back to the start of things, but doesn't introduce us properly to all of the kids at once, instead, doling the introductions out at intervals.  She doesn't rush it--we don't get Wallace Bannaker's back story, the last one, until page 182, which I found extreme.   So it wasn't until the final third of the book that I felt I had a really firm handle on the kids, and could really appreciate their interactions and character arcs.    Likewise, although the book starts with the escape plan getting underway, it then goes back to tell all the story up to that point.

So I read much of the book with a slightly uninvested feeling (though I liked the kids, enjoyed the details of their strange school life, and was curious to learn more about the mystery).  It was not till the story catches up to closer to where the book begins, with the great escape project well underway, that the pieces all clicked for me.   At that point, all the disparate gifts of the kids combine to make things really start humming, the tension grows, and the reader waits with baited breath for the Great Reveal....and realizes she's not going to get it.  Nope, no little wrapping up the plot threads here, just waiting for the next book...

Still, though I have reservations, it never occurred to me to put it down.  And I think it might work well for the right young reader--smart, lonely kids in particular! 

(Thanks to Wallace and Faye, this is one for my list of multicultural sci fi/fantasy, and it's also one for my spec fic school list too!)

Variant, by Robison Wells

Variant, by Robison Wells (HarperTeen, YA, October, 2011) is a lovely example of dystopia writ small, all the more intense for the claustrophobia of its nightmarish setting.

Imagine an isolated boarding school. One where there are no teachers, where directives are issued electronically. One where breaking the rules means that you might disappear. One that where something is very, very wrong, and very scary.

This is the school where a foster kid named Benson is deposited one day, after winning a scholarship that he hopes will give him a chance at a new life. It is not the school he had had in mind.

The students have organized themselves into factions--those who are cooperating with a grim, self-righteous intensity (a gang of crisply dressed, stiff backed self-righteous rule under-liners), those who favor anarchy whenever possible (featuring self-drawn tattoos and as much bad ass attitude as circumstances allow), and the Variants--those who go against the grain, those who most often think of escape.

For Benson, the choice to throw his lot in with the Variants is easy. Escape from this insane school is clearly desirable. Unfortunately, it's also impossible. As the days pass, the depths of its dark wrongness become ever more apparent. Benson gradually discovers answers...but knowledge can be deadly. And there are no loving adults to come and rescue these trapped children...most, like Benson, have no family to care about their fate.

Boy did the plot twist in ways I didn't see coming! Obviously there was some Evil Scheme at work--the students themselves figured they were being tested in some way, for some unknown purposes. But they didn't have a clue what was going on...and neither did I! This one has all the tension of, say, The Maze Runner, but the surreal school setting, at once familiar and cozy, but also horribly wrong, made it all more subtly disturbing. It's a story of teenage orphans in psychological hell, but it's a hell made almost bearable by the rewards and treats bestowed from on high (tasty food, cool clothes, exciting games of combat style paint-ball), and by the friendships formed among the kids.

I devoured it in a fugue state of page-turning, slack-jawed enjoyment, and recommend it with great enthusiasm.

The sequel, Feedback, is coming out on October 2nd...I'm a little worried that now I have answers, and now that the action will be taking place on a a larger canvas, I won't quite enjoy things as much. But Wells did such a good job on this one that I am more than willing to chance it.

Note on age: If a kid is old enough for The Hunger Games, he or she is old enough for this one. I'd happily give it to a twelve year old.

Ghost Knight, by Cornelia Funke, for Timeslip Tuesday

Ghost Knight, by Cornelia Funke (Little Brown, May 1 2012, middle grade).

When 11 year old Jon Whitcroft is packed off to boarding school in Salisbury, England (a consequence of having made himself utterly disagreeable to his mother's boyfriend, aka "the Beard"), he is naturally hurt and angry. But soon Jon realizes that boarding school will bring a more pressing problem that will make the possibility of a new stepfather the least of his worries. And it's not the boarding school food, the close quarters, or the boring drone of his teachers.

Nope. Jon's new problem is a ghostly medieval warrior, Lord Stourton, who wants to kill him. Turns out Jon's ancestor was instrumental in getting Stourton hung (deservedly) back in the 16th century...and revenge is still sweet 500 years later.

Jon's classmates and teachers can't see this murderous ghost and his horrible henchman. But one person believes him--a girl named Ella, who has grown up with the ghosts of Salisbury. She leads him to the tomb of the one ghost who might help him--William Longspee, a knight from the 12 century who must atone for his own wrongdoings by helping those in need.

But can Longspee truly be trusted? He did some terrible things in life himself...and possibly in death as well. Faced with the vivid possibility of death at Strouton's ghostly hand, Jon and Ella have little choice--they must call Longspee to aid them. Or else.

It's a zipping, ghost-filled story. There are moments that made hair on the back of my neck stand on end, in perfect spine-tingly fashion, and I can imagine young readers utterly on the edge of their seats once the threat of ghostly violence enters the picture! There's a bit of a mystery to be solved, which takes some breaking of school rules on the part of Jon and Ella, and quite a bit of exploring Salisbury and environs (including Stonehenge and the must-visit ruins of the castle of old Sarum. There are also lovely descriptions of Salisbury cathedral, which is a lovely place to visit too).

And on top of that, it's a story of friendship (Ella's and Jon's, which maybe kind of might end up with young love in a very believable way), and coming to terms with unasked for and unwanted changes in life ("the Beard" turns out to be Ella's uncle, and not nearly the totally black villain Jon had painted him as). Sure, Jon's happy acquiescence at staying at boarding school at the end of the book might seem a tad abrupt, but Ella is there to sweeten the pot...I liked Ella lots--she's a strong-minded, free-thinking type, and she makes a good friend.

So story-wise, it's all very kid friendly, and the design of the book re-enforces this--lots of pictures (by Andrea Offermann) and fairly small amount of text per page. I read the ARC, so I don't know what the final pictures look like, but they look promising! Here's one I found on-line:


I like the look of them, but the paintings by Friedrich Hechelmann in the original German edition are even more stunning:

But in any event, this is one I'd highly recommend to the 9 or 10 year old reader of fantasy, but the confident 8 year old or the older reader in need of fun, light reading will enjoy it too (this would be me). I am willing to bet that this is a book that will stick in the young reader's mind all his or her life, and am thinking about getting a copy of it for my own soon to be nine year old--although I'm worried that it might be too scary. The dead evil dudes might be a bit much for him. Maybe I will just buy a copy in a general sort of way, and see what happens...

I'm counting this as a time travel book, a category that doesn't include straight ghost stories, no matter how firmly the ghosts interact with our reality. It's a bit of a stretch in this case, but Jon does on several occasions enter into the memories of ghosts, experiences flashes of their past lives:

"I felt my body grow. Now I was strong and tall, but there was even more blood. And even more pain. There were swords, many swords, lances, knives, and horses. I fought. This time the sword was so long, I had to hold it with both hands. I felt my arms ram it into another body. I heard my own breath, labored and much, much too fast....I slipped in the mud and fell to the ground. Something dug into my leg. An arrow. I screamed with pain, or was it rage? There was blood in my eyes. Was it my own, or another man's?" (page 136)

And that's about the extent of the time travel...I wish there had been more!

I am also faced with slightly conundrums regarding other categories--it's a boarding school story, which is part of the point, but not nearly THE point, and it's historical fantasy-ish, in that the events of the past are a large part of the narrative, so you almost feel that you've read historical fiction, but it's not actually set in the past, so I don't think I can count it...at least I can label it with certainty "book with ghosts."

Other thoughts can be found at Ms. Yingling Reads; if you've reviewed it, let me know and I'll add you!

(disclaimer: ARC received from the publisher)

Here's a bonus picture of Old Sarum, which truly is a great castle to take your kids too:

Hex Hall, by Rachel Hawkins

When Hex Hall, by Rachel Hawkins, (Hyperion, 2011, YA, 352 pp) first came out, I, like many bloggers, read it with great enthusiasm. But there were so many reviews of it, I never felt a pressing need to add my two cents. Now, however, I have a new page dedicated to fantasy and sci fi school stories, and I can't not include Hex Hall on that list. Especially since I just re-read it, in preparation for diving into the third, newly released book of the series, Spell Bound!

In Hex Hall, we meet young Sophie, a high school student whose attempt to work a well-intentioned love spell at prom goes horribly wrong. So wrong that the governing council of the Prodiguium (folks with paranormal powers--witches, shapeshifters, fairies, and werecreatures) insist that she go to an isolated school where every student has an episode in their past similar to Sophie's own disaster.

But Hecate Hall is not the most gently nurturing of environments. From the Publisher blurb (time is short, and the gist of things is well-expressed): "By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect."

By the end of the book, Sophie is in seriously hot water. Unless she can solve the mystery, and make it through the final showdown, her stay at Hecate will come to an awful end...

Sophie is a gem. It's not that common for a paranormal heroine to have a sense of humor and a smart mouth, and I loved it. Here's Sophie addressing the headmistress, for instance: “I’m experiencing some teenage angst, Mrs Casnoff,” I answered. “I need to, like, write it in my journal or something.” If I had to go to a magical boarding school, I'd want Sophie as a room-mate. Her relationship with Jenna, her vampire room-mate, is based on delightful banter--they both use humor to buoy each others spirits when things go wrong (which they do, in spades!). Her romance (a hopeless...or maybe not...crush on a truly hot dude) is spot on in its tension and teetering hope, and because Archer, the dude in question, is also a smart-aleck, it's great fun to read their scenes together.

And on top of that, the mystery is gripping, and the ensemble cast full of intriguing characters (Lord Byron makes a cameo appearance as a vampire, teaching English).

I enjoyed it just as much the second time around--it's a truly fun, fast read that makes the reader eager to pounce into the sequel as quickly as possible.

(disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher)

Alex Van Helsing: Voice of the Undead, by Jason Henderson

Those of you looking for books for the 7th - 10th grade boy who likes adventurous fantasy set in our world should most definitely try the Alex Van Helsing series. In this second book, Voices of the Undead (HarperTeen, 2011, 304 pages), 14 year-old Alex continues along the path he began in book one (Vampire Rising), as a new (and unusually gifted) member of a global anti-vampire organization.

Alex can sense vampires. These are not pink rainbow sparkly vampires, but vicious, immoral killers. Unfortunately for Alex, the Swiss boarding school he attends is practically on top of an ancient vampire school, so there is no shortage of potentially deadly encounters. Especially since he is in the cross-hairs of the vampire's leaders--he is not entirely sure himself of the scope of his abilities (neither is the organization that has taken him in), but it's no mystery that the vampires see him as a significant threat.

But Alex is not the target of the current plot being hatched...one that involves a mysterious vampire from the past, a vampire with the ability to mesmerize his victims and use them as players in his deadly games.

When Alex's school is burned down in a mysterious fire, the boys are moved into their sister school. Alex and his room-mates are pleased to have the chance with their pal, Minhi, and her room-mate, the mysterious Vienna (budding, or possibly even pre-budding, teen romance time), but what with murderous vampires planning mayhem, there's little time to socialize....

The action and adventure aspect of the story is front and center, as it was in book 1. Book 2 kicks off with a car chase in which Alex, on his cool motorcycle, must outmaneuver two car loads of would-be killers, one of whom then attacks him with horrible leech worm things, which ultimately leads to his school catching fire, destroying Alex's room-mate's irreplaceable collection of vampire books, as well as the building, which is less emotionally wrenching for us bibliophiles (and that's just the first two chapters!).

But I found that in Book 2 the story is more nicely balanced with mundane details concerning Alex's family and friends, and life as a boy in a girl's boarding school. The tension and danger are still there in spades, but Alex felt more three-dimensional in this book, and I appreciated that (I hope the target audience does too!).

Other reviews at Girl in the Stacks, Bibliojunkies, Ms. Yingling Reads (scroll down), and Sci Fi Chick (where both books are being given away here)

And here's a link to Alex Van Helsing: The Blog, where vampire fans will find much to interest them....

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

Beswitched, by Kate Saunders

Beswitched, by Kate Saunders (Marion Lloyd Books, 2010, middle grade, 288 pages), is a Must Read for anyone who, like me, loves British boarding school stories and time travel, in as much as it combines the two in an utterly delightful fashion.

Young Flora, a modern English girl, is determined to be unhappy at the boarding school to which she's being sent while her parents are abroad. But when she falls asleep on the train, and finds that she's off to boarding school in 1935 (!!!!) her horror is even greater. Her three new room-mates brought her back into the past through an experiment with magic, and now she stuck in a world of nasty baths, worse food, and an educational regime far removed from the relaxed, student-directed learning she'd been promised at her new school.

But Flora manages, with the help of her new friends, to become an Asset to the School, and to save someone's life from going badly wrong....

So much fun! It is just enjoyable as all get out to see a 1935 boarding school through modern eyes, especially since Kate Saunders did such a brilliant job bringing it to life! Lots of description, lots of fully three-dimensional characters, and some nasty Latin verbs...with the threat of WW II adding a darker note (faintly, but it's there). Not a book in which Lots Happens, being more character driven, although I did appreciate the classical boarding school trope of the School Girl in Peril making its appearance!*

Flora's struggles with an alien time and its alien culture are convincing, making this my favorite sort of time travel story--one in which the time travel is the main plot element, but one in which it's the effects of the time travel on the main character and those around her that are the central point.

In short, I thought it was great!

Beswitched has been out in the UK for a while, and is coming to the US this December from Delacorte.

*Viz school girls in peril-- I actually won a prize for a haiku on this theme (10 pounds!!!), which I shall share with you now:

Hanging from the cliff,
I wonder when a school girl
Will come rescue me.

Wishing for Tomorrow, by Hilary McKay--the sequel to A Little Princess

I have just finished reading Wishing for Tomorrow, by Hilary McKay, and I want to read it again. And quite possibly again. I feel rather dizzy with book love...and so very very happy that McKay wrote this book and that I got it for Christmas.

At the end of A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1904), Sara Crewe got a Happy Ending, and Becky got to ride on her coat-tails. But the other students of Miss Minchen's Academy--Lavinia, Lottie, Ermengarde and all-- were left stuck there in dismal-ness.

Now they have been freed, and given stories and endings of their own.

And very satisfyingly too.

Wishing for Tomorrow is told from Ermengarde's point of view--poor lumpish Ermengarde for whom Sara's departure was hardest (and who Burnett seems to have regarded simply as a foil for Sara's relentless perfection). Now she gets a chance to be a person in her own right, and I love her. And Lavinia (the mean and snottie one), Lottie (the rascally little one), and even Miss Minchen herself come alive, in ways that Burnett, with her "Sara as be all and end all" approach to things, never let happen. I never thought I would care about Lavinia, or even, heaven forbid, Miss Minchen, but now I do...

If you love The Little Princess, I bet you will enjoy this book. It stays true to that story, while giving it (and I know this is a cliche, but so what) new life. If you love Hilary McKay, you won't be disappointed either--there is the humor and detail and love for the characters that makes her books favorites of mine. And if you don't have strong feelings about either, this is still a book that those who love character-driven books (especially books about girls at school) will enjoy.

If, one the other hand, you don't like character-driven books about girls of long ago where very little Happens, you probably won't like it that much.

Wishing for Tomorrow has been out for a couple of months already in the UK and Australia (Hodder 313 pp), and comes out here in the US from Margaret K. McElderry on January 5, 2010. Here is the US cover. I prefer the UK one, which I have because my sister went the extra mile (literally)--thank you so much, Emily! The US one looks a bit too sweetly pretty for my taste.

Here's another review, from Nayu's Reading Corner, and another from a 12 year-old reader at Chicklish. Neither of them loved it as much as I did. But here's a third review that's after my own heart, from So Many Books...(with several great quotes!)

And here's my own favorite quote (which Nayu also includes in her review, but which is so brilliant I have to have it too).

Ermengarde has begun to write long letters to Sara, who has asked her to keep an eye on Lottie:

'And so I went up and she was hopping around on one leg saying she was a flamingo and her prayer was:

Dear God

I think I would rather be the only
green flamingo in the world. Than pink.

Nothing happened to her! I am sure if I ever prayed a prayer like that I would be struck down dead.

I said this to Lottie.

'God is used to me,' said Lottie." (p 84)

Viola in Reel Life, by Adriana Trigiani

I am a fan of girls' boarding school stories. I love the girl community aspect of them--the enforced social bonds of the setting, in which the individual personalities of the girls play out. And so Viola in Reel Life, by Adriana Trigiani (HarperCollins, 2009, YA, 282pp), was right up my alley.

Fourteen-year old Viola had no interested in being plonked in a girls' boarding school in South Bend, Indiana while her parents went off to shoot a documentary in Afghanistan. She was quite happy as a city girl in Brooklyn. But now she's sharing a room with three other girls, and has to decide if she wants to be defiantly lonely, filming life obsessively without living it to the fullest, or part of the group. Fortunately for Viola, she picks the latter, and her three room-mates, all very different, become her friends. And when Viola enters a documentary competition, each offers her strengths to the project, making it the best movie Viola's ever made.

In the meantime, there's the cute boy at the nearby boy's boarding school to distract her. But back in New York, her old best friend, Andrew, seems to be changing....

And who is the woman in red, who appears mysteriously in Viola's videos? Are the grounds of the school haunted? (This turns out to be a rather slight sub-plot, adding a bit of mystery and metaphorical point without pushing the story into fantasy).

A very pleasant, diverting read--strong on girl friendship, and with the added interest of documentary film making. It's all a little too good to be true (in fact, I kept misreading the name of the boarding school, the Prefect Academy, as the Perfect Academy). But a very nice younger YA to read when one is tired of Heavy, Issue-filled books. Viola is an engaging heroine, backed up by a fine supporting cast.

(disclaimer: copy received from the publisher)

Academy 7, by Anne Osterlund

Academy 7, by Anne Osterlund (Speak, 2009, 259 pp).

At an ultra prestigious and ultra exclusive boarding school (only 50 students admitted a year, of whom only half get to stay the next), two paths cross. Dane is the son of privilege and power, and for him entering Academy 7 is an act of defiance against his abusively controlling father. For Aerin, the Academy offers hope that, after a desperate escape from the miserable existence she endured after her father's death, she will have a future.

Aerin and Dean are the two brightest students at Academy 7, challenging each other, and the assumptions that underlie their lives. By the end of the year, a relationship that began in competition has turned into much more, and they discover the secrets held at the top of the dark tower that looms over the school....

....a tower that can only be reached by space ship. Because Academy 7 is not an ordinary school, nor are Dane and Aerin typical American teenagers. Although plotwise, there's not a lot here to set the book apart from a standard girl meets boy at school story, Academy 7 isn't on earth. It's set in an interplanetary future, with a back story, geographic details, and technical tidbits that make it science fiction.

However, because the science fiction elements are essentially extraneous to the plot, Academy 7 might have more appeal for fans of the teen romantic fiction, who might find it an enjoyable change of setting. This is perhaps a good thing, because it seems to be marketed toward that audience, as there's absolutely nothing on the cover (either in the picture, or, more surprisingly, in the blurb on the back) to let the browser know that this story does not take place on earth. It is easy to imagine readers being rather surprised when they find themselves, in the first paragraph, on board a crippled spacecraft struggling to survive.

On the other hand, now that the characters have been introduced and the stage is set, there is most definitely room for more books in this world, and lots of scope for Aerin and Caleb to adventure out in the vastness of space....I would like that. Although, being a sucker for boarding school stories, I would be sad to say goodbye to the Academy and its intriguing headmistress just yet. At least one more book should be set there!

Other reviews at YA Book Nerd and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Why I Love The Explosionist

The Explosionist, by Jenny Davidson (Harper Collins, 2008), was one of the books my fellow sci-fi/fantasy panelists and I just shortlisted for the Cybils. Set in a very different version of Edinburgh in the 1930s (Napoleon won the battle of Waterloo), 15 year-old Sophie finds herself drawn into a chaotic mystery involving terrorist bombings, a murdered medium, and her own growing abilities to communicate with the dead, as well as sinister government machinations that have immediate and horrifying ramifications for Sophie and her school friends.

Many have praised the excitement of the story, with its fast pace and engrossing alternate history details, and its great central character (Grow Wings, Teen Book Review, Of Books and Bicycles, and the Ya Ya Yas, to name a few). But I have a reason of my own for loving this book, one that I haven't seen mentioned before.

You see, I am an inveterate reader of British school girl stories, and in many ways The Explosionist is heir to one particular sub-genre of these books--the plucky school girl who foils the Enemy Plot. The majority of these books are set in World War I and World War II, and often strain the bounds of credulity (see footnote). The Explosionist, however, takes this story line and in its fantastical, alternate history way, makes it convincing and wonderful. I loved the interactions of Sophie and her boarding school friends, I appreciated the elements common in many school stories--the intelligent and attractive boy next door to the school, the stern aunt charged with bringing up an orphan girl, and the fact that Sophie, like so many of my favorite school-story heroines, is bad at games. And Sophie is just the type of school girl I like best--smart and interested in learning, uncertain at times but capable of learning from mistakes, plucky without being obnoxiously unbelievable.

I asked Jenny Davidson if she was, in fact, a fan of the genre--her answer was "Yes!" So although I am happy to recommend this book to anyone who likes great adventure, strong characters, and a wonderfully imagined alternate world, I am even happier to recommend the book to readers like me, who love the British school girl.

Footnote on School Children Foiling the Enemy: Some, like The Marlows and the Traitors, by Antonia Forest, Nicolette Detects by Magaret Locherbie-Cameron, and The Denehurst Secret Service, by Gwendoline Courtney, which all involve children thwarting the Germans, are good reads. Others, not so much. The most ridiculous, perhaps, is the Australian book With Wendy at Winterton School by Dora Joan Potter, in which the school girls capture Japanese spies disguised as nuns.

Elfrida Vipont

I just (30 minutes ago) had a very nice find at a library booksale--a lovely copy of The Pavilion, by Elfida Vipont, for fifty cents. Vipont is best know for The Elephant and the Bad Baby (if you've never read it to your small children, do):

but she also wrote excellent family/school stories, published in the late 1940s/1950s. The Lark in the Morn and Lark on the Wing tell the story of Kit Haverard, a motherless Quaker girl determined to become a singer (Lark in the Morn is mainly about young Kit at boarding school; Lark on the Wing is about Kit's training as a singer, and growing up, and a little romance).

These were in most US library systems until fairly recently (they were published in American editions in 1970--)--if your library still has them, check them out now! They are great (I am not the only who thinks so. Lark on the Wing won the Carnegie Medal). Because they were reprinted both in England and here, and were in many libraries, it's possible to find copies at reasonable prices.

There are three other books about Kit's family--The Pavilion, Spring of the Year, and Flowering Spring. The first is about the efforts of various Haverard cousins to save a old building that's part of their family's history, the other two are about Kit's niece, who hopes to be an actress (these two books are set in the most lovely English village imaginable). I just checked to see what The Pavilion is going for (to see if I can quit my day job; I can't). There are still some affordable copies. However, Flowering Spring and Spring of the Year are very rare, so if you see one in any condition selling cheaply, grab it.

Vipont also wrote about another family, in The Family at Dowbiggins and More About Dowbiggins (aka A Win for Henry Connors). These have almost a Noel Streatfeildian feel to them, but also quite a bit of gardening, which I like. They are also hardish to fine for reasonable prices. She wrote a few other fictional books, but they are disappointing, so I shall say no more.

It can be rather frustrating collecting English books here in the states--I hear many stories from friends in England and South Africa of the masses of wonderful books they find at car book sales and charity shops. So when I find a book like I did today, it is a very nice thing indeed. We go to England quite often, as my husband's family is there, but somehow never seem to find the right car book sales. However, my boys are saving up to go to Egypt (only a few thousand more dollars to go); I will be travelling with them as their chaperon, and since I read about the Cairo used book market, I feel much more enthusiastic. There were, I hope, many British ex pats who had large collections of girls' books which are now for sale and that no one else is buying.


I would also very much like to go to the British Virgin Islands, and other, more obscure, Outposts of Empire. A girl can dream...

Reading books about School Girls

Here are the thoughts of Lucy Mangan, a columnist for the Guardian, on why she is not rushing to embrace the remake of the Famous Five. She feels that "the assumptions that underpin these remodelling quests deserve to be unpicked from time to time - the main one being that children want, or should be provided with, only entertainment that reflects their own reality."

As a grown up who really does not want to read any book that reflects my own reality (especially the messy house bit), and who can attribute most of her general knowledge to reading books about places and peoples far away in time and space, I say hear hear. I read to be taken somewhere else, which is one reason I enjoy English school stories so much--the stark contrast between regimented tidy life of that alien creature, the School Girl, and my own life, to which cannot apply the word "controlled," is great. In my favorite stories, the School Girl turns against the regimentation, and bravely makes her own path, allowing me to think, comfortingly, that I would do the same (rather than just get into constant trouble over my untidy sock drawer).

Lucy Mangan is also a fan of school stories, and uses them as one of her own examples, although she highlights a different aspect of their unreality--"Dimsie, the Marlows and the Chalet School heroines articulated the vanishing ideas of moral duty and the honour of the school, and although I never got to demonstrate either - not being able to play lacrosse, never mind with a fractured leg, and the shortage of clifftop rescue opportunities in the Lewisham borough - it was good to know they had once existed, and the knowledge afforded a valuable glimpse into the minds of grandparents and teachers whose thinking had been moulded by such strange notions."

I've read the three series above--all are beautifully escapist, but I would most recommend Antonia Forest's books about the Marlow family. The writing is incredibly sharp.

And then there's the wonderful case of Millie in Diana Wynne Jones' The Lives of Christopher Chant, who uses this same genre to escape from her childhood as a living goddess ...

What fictional boarding school would you like to go to?

There's an interesting little article in the Guardian today, that asks the question--"What fictional school would you like to go to?" I'm an inveterate reader of English girls' boarding school books, despite the fact that I would utterly loathe the vast majority of the schools-- so much organization of one's time, so little chance to creep off alone with a book, so many long organized walks, cold baths, and compulsory games. There's one book, in fact, (Lucy Brown's School Days, by Dorothy Vicary, 1951), whose plot revolves on the rehabilitation of Lucy from a book reading, chocolate-eating introvert to a star athlete and all round team player. Horrors. Even the fact that many of these fictional boarding schools have great settings, such as Mallory Towers (Enid Blyton), a castle-like structure on the coast of Cornwall, I'm not convinced it would be worth it.

One school that breaks from the pattern is Josephine Elder's Farm School, which she wrote about in three books: Exile for Annis (1938), The Cherry Tree Perch (1939), and Strangers at the Farm School (1940). This is a rather utopian school, where you get to pick the direction of your own studies, all the while learning practical skills and helping to look after the farm. And the students are so busy actually doing their own projects at their own pace, and doing communal work, that they are never organized for Walks. So this is my pick for fictional school.*

Copies of the Farm School books are fairly common and inexpensive, but sadly most of these are the Children's Press Editions. Children's Press books are often, but not always, horribly abridged. I've never read the non-Children's Press editions of these myself, but it's my understanding that Exile for Annis survived pretty much intact, but the later two got damaged.

Sort of straying off the topic of fictional schools, I'd just like to say that The Best Girls School Story Ever is Evelyn Finds Herself, also by Josephine Elder. Which really deserves a post to itself one of these days.

*Hogwarts, fun though it is to read about, would be very frustrating to attend. Not just because of titanic struggles against evil and that sort of thing, but because of the inconveniences of the stairways and passwords and all, and the lack of a decent education. (And thinking about reading at school, does any student ever read any fiction for fun?)

Blow out the Moon and other boarding school stories

Among the books I recently picked up for my library was Blow out the Moon, by Libby Koponen (2004). I was at my local independent bookstore, which was having a clearance sale, when I should have been at work, so I was scooping up books based on their covers--Blow out the Moon has just come out in paperback, but I like the hc cover (at left) much better! I was pleased to see, once I unpacked everything, that I had come home with a book about an American girl who goes to an English boarding school in the 1950s, when her family moves to England.

It is based on the true experiences of the author, and it is filled with little sidebar snippets of old photographs, notes, letters etc. from the life of the narrator (but not necessarily the author--I am a bit confused on this point. Anyway, they look real). All this extra stuff distracted me, but I bet a lot of the 10 year old girls who are, after all, the intended audience, liked this aspect of the book. Things started off strong, with the exciting move to England, and Libby's first dismal experience of English school life, but once Libby was sent to boarding school (at the shocking age of 8), everything was so idyllic I was not quite as interested. But again, girls younger than me may well find that half of the book incredibly appealing for its fantastical otherness.

Libby Koponen has a great web site: http://www.ifyoulovetoread.com/ with lots of pictures!

I'm a hard core fan of English boarding school stories, and this was an interesting comparison. My fondness for English school stories began with my extensive reading of Enid Blyton's school stories as a child. I found myself at the age of five at a British school in Portugal, being told in rather unfriendly tones--"You stand there with her--she's another American." So, like the Libby who narrates this book, I found myself becoming more fiercely American than I had been before (like Libby, I wouldn't sing the British national anthem). Enid Blyton was about the only author available in English in northern Portugal at the time, so I devoured her St. Claires and Mallory Towers books. About 10 years ago I discovered, through the yahoo group Girlsown that there are many other wonderful school stories out there -- by authors such as Antonia Forest, Evelyn Smith, Josephine Elder, and Margaret Biggs. My husband has built more bookcases.

Here's a basic guide to some of the better known writers: http://www.gatewaymonthly.com/girlauthorb.html