<p>Just a fun activity to pass the time while we all wait for M10. Figured a list could be useful to kids wanting to read about kids at BS. Maybe that's just my method, lol. I learned everything about puberty from Judy Blume.</p>
<p>Here are a few I know of (leaving out Harry Potter and the titles than begin at BS and are all about leaving <em>Catcher in the Rye</em>:</p>
<p>Looking For Alaska by John Green (author is a graduate of Indian Springs)
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Gallagher Girl series by Ally Carter
Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn by Sarah Miller
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Winger by Andrew Smith
Variant by Robinson Wells</p>
<p>Almost all the kids in Enid Blyton’s books attend boarding school, although a lot of the stories take place on “hols”. But the Mallory Towers series would definitely qualify.</p>
<p>This is the weirdest thing. Just this afternoon I was thinking of the “classic” boarding school books (e.g. A Separate Peace) and thinking how cool it was that there is a continuity between my boarding school years and those of my daughter. Imagine my surprise at checking in tonight and reading those same words! I think I need to go re-read A Separate Peace now… FWIW I was never a fan of Catcher in the Rye. There are loads of boarding school “adventure” books from the UK to try. Fun thread! I digress a little, but the rest of my earlier thinking was how fantastic boarding school English classes are for broadening minds. For example, my daughter had to read Beowulf this year - on page 2 she hated it. But, recently, she told me (very seriously) that she LOVED it. She also “discovered” that Shakepeare coined the term “swag”… </p>
<p>Well… my kids also read Beowulf and a lot of Shakespeare in English class, and they didn’t attend boarding school… so it might just be better to say that a good English class broadens their minds. But I do love boarding school books just the same. :)</p>
<p>A Separate Peace is set at a fictionalized Phillips Exeter. John Knowles attended. There was a movie version made in the 70’s starring Parker Stevens and it was filmed there. When I attended it was shown as part of orientation. It’s not as good as the book but the scenery is nice. </p>
<p>I just went to Imdb to see if it’s available. It is not but there is a great English boarding school thriller called “Unman,Wittering and Zigo” from 1971 available on Amazon Prime. I remember it as a very creepy movie. It seems to have a cult following. I’m sorry I’m talking about movies on a book thread.</p>
<p>The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
many John Irving Novels have boarding schools as settings such as A Prayer for Owen Meany, In One Person, and The World According to Garp
The Power of One by Byrce Courtney - partially set in a S. African boarding school and a wonderful book
Goodbye Mr. Chips by James HIlton
New Boy by Julian Houston</p>
<p>Ah, I totally forgot this one. It won the Hugo Award in 2012. The boarding school experience isn’t the most positive one, but I loved this book.</p>
<p>I have a vague memory of a British boarding school book that I loved at 11 or 12. I wonder whether it was one of Enid Blyton’s. I think one of the characters was called Veronica. Does that ring a bell for anyone?</p>
<p>What a great list we’ve got going! Is anyone else hearing that iPad Air commercial they keep playing during the Olympics and feeling the sudden urge to watch Dead Poet’s Society? Maybe we need a boarding school movies list?</p>
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