When We Were Young and Brave

Finished February 11

When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor

This historical fiction novel was inspired by real events. The story is framed by one of the narrators, Nancy, looking back at this time from 1975. Near the end of the book, the framing is completed with a more full explanation of what happened to the various characters after their time in China ended. 

The main story begins in December 1941, with Elspeth Kent, one of the teachers at the Chefoo Mission School considering resigning and returning to her home in England. She came to China after her fiancé was killed in a mining accident and she couldn't see how to move on there without him. But her plans are thwarted with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and their declaration of war against the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Allied countries. 

Among the students at the school is Nancy Plummer, along with her older brother, and Nancy's friends who include an American girl named Dorothy (nicknamed Sprout as she is tall and thin) and Joan (nicknamed Mouse because she is small and quiet). The girls are part of a Brownie troop and studying to move up to Girl Guides. Elspeth and another teacher, Minnie, lead the girls in this endeavour. 

When the Japanese arrive to occupy the school, the headmaster is taken away, the Chinese servants are sent away, and the soldiers label everything the property of the Japanese emperor. When Minnie tries to make a stand, she is beaten with a pole by one of the soldiers, and Elspeth tries to intervene drawing attention to herself. We watch as the situation evolves over the years. 

Without the servants, the teachers and students must cook and clean and the teachers try to manage morale. Elspeth and Minnie use the Girl Guide teachings and badge earning to get the girls to work and treat the situation optimistically. After a year, the group is moved across town to another school, which has been abandoned for some time. There, they have to make the spaces they are billeted in liveable, and consider safety and continue teaching. The headmaster is back by now and is a great leader in this and the future situations. 

When they are moved again, it is farther away, to an internment camp near Weihsien, where they are the most recent additions. They find support from some of the other prisoners, who have organized a library, and a system of work responsibilities. 

With two narrators, Elspeth and Nancy, we get different viewpoints from different levels of understanding the situation. The author did a lot of research, trying to talk to survivors from Japanese prisoners and using real examples, such as the presence of the Olympic runner Eric Liddell in the camp. 

I found the story interesting and believable and liked the nuances of the people, with both bad and good people among their Japanese captors. I also enjoyed the use of the Girl Guide training and expectations to motivate the young girls and keep up their morale.  

The Fiercest Joy

Finished February 9

The Fiercest Joy by Shana Abé

This is the third novel in The Sweetest Dark, a historical fantasy series. I also noted that it tied in with the Drákon series by the same author, in an interesting way. 

Eleanore (Lora) Jones is in her final year as a scholarship student at the prestigious Iverson School for girls, and torn between two drákon men she loves, brothers Aubrey and Armand. This year there is also another scholarship girl at the school, and it would appear that she is a drákon as well, going under the name Smith. She cannot apparently turn into a dragon, but she has other skills. The three can't help wonder what she is doing there and whether she is putting them at risk. 

When Lora gives into her intuition one night and engages in a coastal battle, she encounters another dragon, and feels threatened by his presence. 

Soon after that two drakon people, brother and sister, arrive at the school, claiming to have been searching for Eleanore for years. They intend to take her to join her family. But Eleanore is still unsure and since she is now engaged, she insists that her fiancé come as well. 

Meanwhile Aubrey is researching Lora's past with a clue from a memory of hers, by searching for ship passenger lists near the time of her birth. He and Armand have also shared historical letters regarding their family with both her and Miss Smith. 

This tale has lots of dramatic moments and suspense as well as moments of strong emotion. It wraps up this series nicely, while still offering possibilities for future books.  

Miss Mabel's School for Girls

Finished October 31

Miss Mabel's School for Girls by Katie Cross

This is the first book in a teen fantasy series set in another world. As the book opens, Bianca Monroe is running through Letum Wood, having just been accepted into the school. Bianca has a motive for applying to the school, one where young women hone their skills as witches. This motive is revealed relatively early in the book, but then we see how Bianca has to manage her expectations about how her initial goal would work out. She must undergo tests and trials as she tries to get out from under the curse that Miss Mabel has set on her, her mother, and her grandmother. 

I enjoyed the story, particularly the two friends that Bianca found early in her studies, Lida and Camile. Lida's skills in particular were important for Bianca. 

This is a story that grew on me. Miss Mabel is an evil character that is easy to hate, but she is also constantly surprising. The other teachers seem minor characters until the end of this first novel in the series. As Bianca's family situation was gradually revealed, it became more interesting. 

There are four main books in the series, with some that fit before or between them. 

The Night She Disappeared

Finished December 9

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

This story takes place in an English suburb. On a summer night over a year before the main story, a teenage couple Tallulah and Zach head out to a local pub for dinner. This is the first time the pair has been out since the birth of their baby Noah several months before. Tallulah lives with her mom and younger brother and attends a local college. Zach is working and saving money for their own home and a few months earlier, after a break in their relationship, moved in with Tallulah. Tallulah's mom, Kim is close to her daughter and hopes for a better relationship for her than the one she had with her children's father, who moved back with his own mother shortly after their son Ryan is born. 

But Tallulah and Zach don't return home. Zach's parents don't seem concerned, and seem to think the two felt parenthood too much and took off together. Kim knows Tallulah wouldn't abandon Noah, and tries to track their movements the night before, finding that they'd gone to the house of another young woman, Scarlett Jacques. 

Scarlett says they left when Tallulah felt ill, but no taxi firm has any record of a trip and there seems to be no trace of the two, even when police get involved. 

Fourteen months later, Sophie Beck moves into the headmaster's cottage at a local school, Maypole House, with her boyfriend Shaun, the new headmaster. Sophie writes cozy mysteries. At the back of the garden, she finds a sign on the fence saying Dig Here, and when she does, she finds something that leads her to Kim. Sophie wonders who has left the sign and whether it is targeted specifically for her, because of her novels. 

As we follow the timelines of Sophie and Kim in the now, and trace the events in Tallulah and Zach's lives leading up to that night they disappeared, we find things are not always as they seem, and that relationships are more complex than anyone close to the couple knew. 

Kim lives in both fear and hope, and Sophie finds that mysteries made real may change her life as well. 

A fascinating tale of love, control, and the things people are willing to do for both. 

Taking the Reins

Finished May 24

Taking the Reins by Katrina Abbott

This teen novel is the first in a series set at a high end boarding school (Rosewood) in the United States. The central character is Brooklyn Prescott, who has returned to the country after living in England for the last two years. Her father is involved in government security and the name she goes by is not her real one, a precaution arranged for her safety. 

She is a bit nervous about some of the celebrity-related and wealthy girls she'll be going to school with, but also eager to make a fresh start. She feels that she has been less outgoing and popular than she would prefer. She finds that even though it is an all girls' school, there is plenty of interaction with the nearby all boys' school which caters to a similar demographic. 

The school does has some quirks though, like the requirement to participate in the school through doing regular work at the school. When she finds that she has been assigned laundry work, and that her shift conflicts with the dressage club that she's been pining to join, she must try to find a way to make it work. 

There is lots of socializing here, and we hear more about that than the studies, and we also begin to see the hierarchy that has developed at both schools and the way that the students interact even outside of sanctioned times. 

With romance, a bit of suspense, and lots of action, this book is a quick read. 

& Sons

Finished December 31 

& Sons by David Gilbert

This lyrical novel is told from the viewpoint of a middle-aged man, and yet he often has omniscience into the thoughts and behaviours of others. Philip Topping is at his father Charles' funeral as the book begins, but that isn't the only upheaval in his life. He is recently separated from his wife after she discovered his affair with a young woman, and he has also lost his job as a teacher in a private school due to the scandal. He approaches and talks to his father's oldest friend, Andrew Dyer, a famous novelist, who offers his spare room to Philip for the transition. 

Andrew himself had a marriage breakup due to a similar transgression, only his act resulted in a child. Young Andy is now seventeen and Andrew has been raising him since his mother died when he was a baby. Andrew's former wife Isabel drew the line at raising the child, with her own two sons, Richard and Jamie both grown and living their own lives. 

Richard lives in California and is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, as his his wife Candy. They have two children, Emmett, sixteen and Chloe, twelve. They are coming to New York shortly to visit, the first for the kids. Jamie is a documentary filmmaker, a man who travels the world, has an efficiency apartment he spends little time, and sometimes teaches at New School. He is wrapping up a long-term film that he has done as a special request for his high school girlfriend as she is dying from cancer. 

In common for all these men from Charles and Andrew, to Philip, Richard, and Jamie, and now Andy is the private school Exeter which they all attended. A fictionalized version of this school is at the heart of Andrew's most successful novel Ampersand as well. 

As we see these characters interact, we see the imbalance between the two families, and the competitive spirit of teenage males as they learn to navigate the world. The Dyer family is definitely the alpha in the friendships in both generations, and they aren't always kind about it. While we don't see Charles himself, there are letters between him and Andrew that show aspects of their friendship at some crucial moments in their lives. 

The use of the omniscient viewpoint is interesting as Philip is an unreliable narrator and yet has this insight into the minds, experiences, and actions of these other people. It took me a little while to get into the book, but once I did it really flowed for me. The characters are complex, showing both likeable and unlikable qualities, and they began to grow on me as the book went on. This book is more about the characters and the relationships than the plot and yet the plot is key to those relationships. 

A very enjoyable read.

The Deepest Night

Finished June 27
The Deepest Night by Shana Abe

This is the second book in the series that started with The Sweetest Dark. It is 1915 and Lora Jones is a scholarship student at Iverson, a prestigious boarding school for upper class young ladies housed in an old castle on England's southern coast. Lora grew up in an orphanage, and spent some time in a mental institution as well due to the music that she hears due to her special abilities. In the first book in the series, Lora discovered that she wasn't an ordinary human girl, but one that could change into a dragon. Here, she is recovering from injuries she received then, and has a new mission, to rescue Aubrey the eldest son of her benefactor, who is in a POW prison in Austria.
To help her, she has only the younger son of her benefactor, Armand, a young man who has fallen in love with her although her love is elsewhere. Armand does what he can to protect Lora, whether at the school, or outside of it. Even sometimes from his own father. And Lora does what she can to protect Armand, even as he begins to go through the changes that will bring him into his own dragon transformation.
I enjoyed the first book and always meant to follow up on the series, and am glad that I did. A lot of the plot here has to do with social classes, but there is also World War One which figures strongly in the book. Lora has her baggage from the past, and she has challenges in the present with not only the mission that the stars have for her now, but also with some of the girls that she goes to school with and with the social situation that she finds herself in. I really liked her as a character, and how she developed over the course of the book.
Looking forward to reading the third one

Free Day

Finished June 23
Free Day by Inès Cagnati, translated by Liesl Schillinger

This is a heartbreaking story. The narrator Galla is a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl who has been able to attend high school in a nearby town due to a scholarship her teacher put her down for. Her father does not support this endeavour, but her mother does to an extent. She misses Galla's help with the other children. She boards at school and returns home to visit on a regular basis. The visit on this day though is an unplanned one, and it doesn't go well.
Galla's family is poor, making a subsistence living. Her family is not accepted welcomingly in the community, and it's hard to tell whether her father's attitude is due to this or the community's behaviour is a result of his attitude. Galla is the oldest of many children, and she has often been left to look after them by her parents. Her father is prone to rages which affect everyone from his family to community members.
On this trip Galla is hoping to surprise her mother, and her story is told through memories that arise as she travels the twenty miles by bicycle to her family home in the marshes. She also talks to herself about what she sees now, about her feelings about things from her family to her situation at school where she can't even afford to purchase appropriate supplies. She deeply cares for her mother and her siblings, particularly her sisters, and this becomes clear by her actions and the memories she brings forward.
Galla's father is not welcoming to her and she is unable to see other family members on her visit, and it only becomes clear what is happening towards the end of the book.
One leaves this book with a desperate hope that Galla will be able to escape this life for a better future and bring her siblings along with her.

A Troublesome Boy

Finished March 28
A Troublesome Boy by Paul Vasey

This book follows the young Teddy Clemson as he is sent to a distant boarding school/reform school after a letter home about him being "troublesome." Teddy's parents have separated and his father isn't present in his life. Instead, his mother's new husband has been making the decisions about Teddy's future and, since he doesn't like Teddy, sending him away suits him well.
Teddy's new school is St. Ignatius Academy for Boys, knows as St. Iggy's. It is in northern Ontario, near the town of Belleview, and is run by Catholic priests and monks. When Teddy gets off the bus in Belleview, he is hungry and first heads to the diner he sees, where he is greeted in a friendly manner by Rita and Freddy. After his mean, he follows their directions to the school.
He is met by Father Stewart, the principal, who goes over a few things before having Brother Wilbur take him up to his dorm room. As the next few days pass, Teddy gets to know who the other teachers at the school are. They include Father Prince, a man who makes the boys nervous; Brother Joe, who sleeps outdoors most of the time and likes nature; and Father Sullivan, who seems to have quite a temper.
Teddy also gets to know the other boys, and becomes friends with another new boy, Tim Cooper, who has spent most of his life in foster care.
One gets the sense right away that this school isn't a happy place to be. When Teddy is shown a "time out room," a room with no lights or windows, a single straight chair and no handle on the inside of the door, he begins to understand the nature of the school. Even the boys who are not Catholic have to attend chapel in the mornings before breakfast, and their is a worse punishment room than the time out rooms, a place referred to as the dungeon.
The callous disrespect for basic human kindness, and the anger, violence, and abuse that many of the teachers perpetuate is one familiar to those of us who've read about residential schools.
The author, Vasey, survived a school similar to this one, and that experience served as an inspiration for this story.

The Lying Game

Finished January 31
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

This suspense novel is centered around 4 women. Part of the story is told in flashback of the time they met at boarding school and the few months that they spent together there that bonded them for life. The story is told by one of the girls, Isa Wilde. Isa was sent to boarding school then for the first time in her life. Her mother was in bad health and her father decided that sending both her and her younger brother away would be easier for them and him. But it wasn't. On the train on the way to the school, Isa met first the two girls Kate and Thea, who already were going to the school, and then on the platform, Fatima. Kate boarded only during the week, living nearby on the weekends with her father and stepbrother, the art teacher for the school, and a famous painter. Thea's home life is vague but obviously an unhappy one. Fatima's parents are both doctors, who went to Pakistan for the year to work for an NGO. It is her first time at boarding school as well.
Fatima and Isa are put together in a room, near the room that the other two girls share. Thea and Kate already have a sort of game they play where they see how far they can take a lie, and without even trying the other two fit in to this game.
With the girls going to Kate's house most weekends, they grow even closer, and more separate from the other students. But when something terrible happens, and they agree to keep the secret together, they create the bond that lasts.
Now, years later, when Isa gets a text that says merely "I need you" she knows that it is Kate, and she knows that she must go. Isa is living with her boyfriend and infant daughter, and is on maternity leave from her government job. She knows that Thea and Fatima will also have received a text, and will make their way back to Kate as well. She hasn't seen any of them in years, some for longer than others. With the trip back to Kate's home, the village, and the school, come old memories, both good and bad.
This is a story filled with foreboding, where you feel constantly on edge, wondering what will be revealed next. A great read.

Smoke

Finished June 13
Smoke by Dan Vyleta

This novel is set in an alternate England, one in which those with wicked thoughts or engaged in sinful actions emit smoke from their bodies. The less smoke one emits, the better one is, and the upper classes smoke very little. Of course, this lack of smoke isn't all natural, because they can afford substances that control the smoke, and of course control knowledge of these substances to maintain their reputation of superiority.  The time is the early twentieth century, in an England who has closed off many of its contacts with the rest of the world, especially in terms of new technologies and scientific learning.
In this world we are introduced to two boys of about sixteen, at an upper class boarding school. Thomas came to the school recently despite laws making such schooling compulsory, and thus is a bit of an outsider. Charlie is the son of one of the wealthiest families in the country, a gentle boy who is also highly intelligent. As the book opens, the boys have been woken in the night to undergo a peer controlled examination around the emitting of smoke. The exercise is a form of bullying and control. The unexpected result of this nighttime encounter has both Thomas and the upperclassman organizer of the examination forced to undergo private tutoring.
As the book unfolds, the action organizes it into sections. The first section is at the school, the second at the country house of Thomas' uncle, where both Charlie and Thomas learn more about the nature of smoke and the control of it and meet Thomas' cousin Livia. The third section is one that introduces more characters who are at a lower level of the social order, and the three young people discover that wealth and freedom are not always aligned. The fourth and fifth sections are set in London, with more understanding and manipulation of the nature of smoke and its meaning.
The quotes that introduce each section highlight the some of the inspiration for this novel, Dickens' world of complex plots, a London of dirty fog, and harsh realities. Even the cover image used draws from that time period of a dirty, dangerous city.
There is so much in this book to comment on that it is hard to know where to start, especially if one is trying not to give away plot elements. It abounds with secrets, personal ones, family ones, national ones. Secret labs to delve into scientific ideas outlawed by the state. Secret police who operate outside of state control. Secret feelings between people. Complex relationships between a mother and her children, between friends, between men and women. Smoke illustrates the complex worlds of reason and passion, social order, religion versus science, and ethical behaviour. There is also lots of action, from chase scenes and dramatic escapes, to a love triangle, to violent interactions.
An amazing read.

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

Finished January 30
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley, read by Jayne Entwistle

This episode in the Flavia de Luce series takes Flavia away from Buckshaw, her home in England to a boarding school in Canada. Flavia, now twelve, is sent by her father and aunt Felicity to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Toronto, the same school where her mother Harriet once went. She is escorted from her home by the chair of the board of the school, Ryerson Rainsmith, and his wife, Dorsey, not a couple that Flavia warms to at all, across the Atlantic to Halifax and on to Toronto by train.
On her first night at the school, another boarder attacks her in her bed, and then a corpse falls out of her chimney. The body is wrapped tightly and charred, but in the aftermath of this Flavia takes the time to observe as much as she can, and palms an object that fell out with the corpse. The headmistress, Miss Fawlthorne seems to change her character at a whim, sometimes becoming quite approachable and other times retreating to a stern demeanor. Flavia becomes acquainted with the other girls, exchanging information and even getting invited to late night meetings involving Ouija board, but she doesn't gain a true friend. She is intent on finding out more about the body, and about finding what truth there is to the rumors of missing girls.
There is an element of intrigue here that seems to make things unnecessarily difficult, with certain topics off limits, and a secret society, brought up in the previous novel, making a larger appearance here. Flavia is an intelligent girl and relates best to those who recognize that and who are also intelligent, which means that her strong relationships are to adults. Here, she looks forward to chemistry classes with Mrs. Bannerman, a woman acquitted of murder, and one knowledgeable with Flavia's favourite subject. There is less labl time here, although chemistry does indeed play a role in the mystery.
There are several interesting new characters here, that I hope to see again, but I missed the folks from Bishops Lacey.

Serious Things

Finished November 8
Serious Things by Gregory Norminton

This novel jumps back and forth between two time periods, In the current time, Bruno Jackson is thirty-one, working for the Ministry of Transportation on road toll pricing policy. He is overweight, single, gay, and depressed. When he encounters his estranged best friend from his boarding school days, the guilt and sadness that he has been carrying for years are reawakened in him, and have devastating consequences.
In the early 1990s, when Bruno lived with his parents in Malaysia. As he entered high school, his parents decided to send him to a good boarding school in England to better prepare him for university. He is one of the few boys there who is a British expatriate, meaning that he isn't familiar with the same cultural knowledge as his peers. He is also shy, academically-inclined, and not athletic. He befriends another boy Anthony Blunden, whom he has a secret crush on. He and Anthony spend a lot of time together at school, but Anthony can often be cruel, and thoughtless in terms of how he treats Bruno. Both boys are taken under the wing of a new teacher at the school, Mr. Bridge, who shares his love of literature with the boys, bringing them for visits to his home, and encouraging their reading beyond the syllabus.
As the book jumps back and forth between "Now" and "Then", we gradually learn the story of Bruno's boarding school days, his friendship with Anthony, and the circumstances that drove Bruno to the life he is now living.
This is not a happy book, but it is a book that shows the power of influence and guilt. This would be a very good book for book clubs, offering much for discussion.

Ghost Girl

Finished July 12
Ghost Girl by Helena McEwan

This novel is set in the 1970s. Cath is thirteen and is the new girl at the Catholic convent boarding school in England. Her father works in the foreign service and she has not lived in England until now. Most recently, she was in South America.
Her older sister Very is at art school in London. When Cath has school breaks, she travels to London and stays with Very. Very cares deeply about Cath, that is clear, but Cath must find her own way, both at school and in London.
Luckily, I never had to go to boarding school, but I've been the new girl, and I felt for Cath in her uncertainty, her lack of knowledge of the current pop culture, and her nostalgia for the life she knew until now. Certainly at many times, the girls at school were cruel in the way only girls can be, but she is not the only new girl, and not the only one singled out for embarrassment.
What surprised me the most was the cruelty of some of the nuns who are teachers at the school. The teachers who weren't nuns seemed better, and not all of the nuns had cruel streaks, but some of them seemed to delight in making the girls' lives unhappy.
The novel is split into four parts, with the first and third parts being in London, the second part being at school, and the fourth part mostly at school until the end of term when Cath arrives back in London.
I found the writing very interesting, with Cath's thoughts often moving to school when she was in London and vice versa. Other than the words themselves, there is no indication of this change so it gives a real sense of the distracting nature of the thoughts at times.
Cath was a delight, a quiet girl, a thinker. She enjoys the astronomical facts she learns from the other new girl, Olive, sharing them with Very. She delights in the experiences she undergoes in London with Very's friends, for the most part. She likes being alone, sitting quietly with others, observing the world around her. School is not easy, but she finds it may not be as bad as she first thought, although there are moments that are worse than she imagined. This is a unique coming of age experience, uniquely told.

I'll Take What She Has

Finished February 27
I'll Take What She Has by Samantha Wilde

This book alternates chapters between two friends, Annie and Nora. The two have been friends since they were young children in Iowa. Years ago, when a job opened up at the boarding school near Boston that Annie's partner Ted taught at, she called Nora to urge her to apply. Nora has blossomed there, gaining a loyal following of students and getting married to a local lawyer Alfie. Now Nora desperately wants children and is worried that nothing is happening after months of trying. Annie seems consumed by anger, anger at her boisterous children, anger at her husband's long separated wife for not signing the divorce papers, anger at the other woman at the children's centre she goes to, anger at being short of money all the time, anger at her own anger. When a new teacher arrives and seems to embody perfection, and get all the things the two women thought they wanted, they react in different ways, Nora by spending lots of time with her and Annie by pushing Nora away and becoming even more angry. When Nora's relations start to arrive with their own agendas, she isn't sure how to react.
This is a book about envy, about self-knowledge, about love and family. A feel-good book about everyday life.

Teen Novel

Finished January 17
The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson
While very different from her previous novel (The Adoration of Jenna Fox), this novel is equally compelling. I had trouble putting it down and read it in the course of 24 hours.
We follow Destiny Faraday through one day in her life. Destiny lives her life not getting attached to anyone else, moving on when she starts to care. She has been in boarding schools since she was a young child.
On this day, she has an odd encounter with a stranger at school, and that is followed by her discovery of a car. Destiny and three of her classmates: Seth, a new boy; Mira, a girl who always tries to smooth the waters; and Aidan, a brainy logical boy; take the car in search of a fair day.
Their encounters, discoveries, and the stories they share with each other take them to a new understanding of friendship, and the wonders of life.
The emotions are definitely here, and I found myself weeping at some points of the book. Definitely a novel to spark discussion among teens.

Novel of Recollection

Finished December 2
Testimony by Anita Shreve, performed by a full cast
This is one of Shreve's best and the performance did justice to it. The novel is centered around a private school in Vermont that has both boarding students and day students. The headmaster is given a videotape that shows sexual acts performed at the school by students. The girl involved in the acts is only fourteen. As the events unfold, they bring shame, retribution, punishment and loss to those involved.
The story is told by many characters talking about the event in the past, some as much as two years later. We see the aftermath first, and the actions that led to what happened later. How one moment can affect the futures of so many and forever transform their lives is something that comes through clearly by the end.
The voices ring true, perhaps because of the cast giving individual nuances to the characters. I wept with the characters, and found myself truly involved in the story.

Teen Read

Finished August 19
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
This is a great read, with a strong female protagonist (Frankie). Frankie is going into her sophmore year at Alabaster, an expense boarding school that her older sister and her father also went to. Over the summer, she has grown into her body and is quite goodlooking. She also has a sharp mind. She immediately gets a senior as a boyfriend, the goodlooking Matthew Livingston. When she finds herself sometimes ignored in favor of Matthew's friends, and feels herself being boxed in by others' opinions of her, she takes matters into her own hands.
Frankie has a good sense of herself, is aware of potential weaknesses, and knows she is every bit as smart as the boys in the school's exclusive secret society. As she infiltrates the society, she shows that she is not to be underestimated.
I really liked this character, and she displays a good sense of self.

Looking Back

Finished July 19
What I Was by Meg Rosoff
I've always enjoyed everything I've read by Rosoff, and this was no exception. This book has an elderly man looking back at the year he was sixteen. The year was 1962 and he was in his third boarding school, having been kicked out of the previous two. He has no real ambition and tries to keep to himself and do as little as possible, that is until he meets another young man, who lives alone in a hut on the beach. When he meets Finn, he finds himself drawn to the life Finn lives, simple, doing what he needs to survive and depending on no one but himself. He finds opportunities to escape from school to be with Finn as often as he can, and tries to keep the friendship a secret.
He takes chances and almost gets caught a number of times, and finally when Finn needs his help he must choose to expose the relationship to assist him. There are many themes here from the broad one of global warming and how it affects the environment to the narrator's own self-involvement. This was an interesting look at a turning point in a young man's life and how it determined the rest of his days.

Second in a Series

Finished April 11
Crazy School by Cornelia Read
This is the second book featuring Madeline Dare. Madeline and her husband Dean have left Syracuse for a town in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. When the job that Dean came to do was delayed, Madeline took a job at a school for troubled youth. The rules surrounding both faculty and students at the school are bizarre, and Madeline finds the staff more troubling than the students. When Madeline tries to help the students in ways that are not necessarily those of the school, she finds herself targeted.
Given some of the stories in the news recently around private boarding schools, this plotline doesn't seem that much of a stretch. I loved the Madeline Dare character in her first book and continue to be a fan. She has an interesting background and a strong relationship with her husband and yet is very human.
I look forward to seeing more of her.