When you think about it, a school is the perfect setting for a novel. It’s a place filled with all sorts of people who may have nothing in common. Everyone is stuck there whether they like it or not. And when it comes to a boarding school, they can’t even escape from it if they wanted to. No wonder writers from Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens to Paul Murray and JK Rowling have been drawn to a school setting. And unsurprisingly, today’s children are still eager to read about a world in which kids make up most of the population and which bears at least some similarity to the readers’ own. Here are some of my own favourites, both old and new.
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Intelligent, sensitive and creative, Sara Crewe becomes a pampered pupil at a boarding school in Edwardian London run by the snobbish Miss Minchin. But when her father dies and leaves her penniless, Sara is forced by the cruel and greedy headmistress to stay at the school as a downtrodden servant. I loved this book so much as a child I called my diary "Sara" after its protagonist, who remains one of children's literature's most appealing and indomitable heroines.
First Term at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton
Yes, I know – and agree with – all the arguments against Blyton. But there's no denying the enormous appeal of her school stories. Blyton wrote three boarding school series – St Clare's, Malory Towers and the Naughtiest Girl series set in the surprisingly progressive Whyteleafe School. Every reader had a favourite, and mine was Malory Towers, which had both a fiery heroine in Darrell Rivers and its own swimming pool carved out of the Cornish rocks. Not only are all the Blyton school stories still in print, but sequels by other authors have also been hits (especially in Germany, oddly enough).
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
Noel Streatfeild’s hugely entertaining account of three very different sisters who attend a London stage school in the 1930s adds a touch of grit and grease-paint to the genre. While the novel’s focus is on Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil, Streatfeild also gives us a fascinating look at life in a school where tap, ballet and acting classes are just as important as regular lessons – and the uniform includes rompers, tarlatan dresses and of course, ballet shoes.
Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens
The success of Robin Steven's wonderful 2014 debut novel shows that 21st-century kids still love reading about historical boarding school adventures. Murder Most Unladylike sees schoolgirls Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells investigating the murder of one of their teachers at Deepdean School for the Girls in 1934. It's a witty, subversive and enormously entertaining twist on the genre.
Autumn Term by Antonia Forest
Antonia Forest is one of the few classic school story writers whose books are undeniably great novels. Her books are difficult to find these days apart from Autumn Term, in which twins Laurie and Nicola Marlow arrive at Kingscote School, where their elder sisters are already distinguished pupils. They're determined to make their mark – but nothing goes according to plan. Forest's complex characters are utterly convincing, and her brilliant books appeal to both children and adults.
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
It may not be a classic school story, but Rainbow Rowell’s 2012 novel about two high school misfits who fall for each other on the school bus is a superbly bittersweet teenage romance, and a reminder that the school system can sometimes push two people together who might never have met otherwise.
The Harry Potter Books by JK Rowling
If any author has ever made a school feel like a whole world, it’s JK Rowling. I once read an essay by a distinguished American children’s literature critic in which the author complained about the fact that each Harry Potter book began in exactly the same way – after some sort of mysterious encounter and adventure outside the school, Harry and his friends meet at King’s Cross station and travel by train to Hogwarts.
What the American critic didn’t seem to realise was that while the Harry Potter books fit comfortably into the fantasy genre, they also follow the formula of classic school stories – and that train journey is a crucial part of the genre.
