Nominated by sixteen year old Susan Z, Howard Whitehouse’s The Strictest School in the World is a Victorian science-fantasy novel. It’s not old – 2006 – but it’s written in a tradition of brave youngsters (Emmaline, the fourteen year old pioneer of aviation and Rubberbones, her ‘indesruckible’ test pilot). When Emmaline is sent to St. Grimelda’s, a savagely cruel school for girls, she works to escape as her outside friends attempt to help. A prison break novel about an 1890s boarding school, this hilarious romp is the first in a series known as the ‘Madcap Misadventures’.
The Kids Can Press.website offers a chance to read a sample chapter and to look at the other two books in the series.
