The Secret Life of a Boarding School Brat

At my school we have a time to read in english. I picked this book by acident. I was running late, and needed a book. I was very lucky to pick this book. Lydia Rice is a girl who goes to a boarding school, and hates it! She Walked around the school at night and ran into the night watchman who is alsois the maintance man and a silly wizard. Lydia wants to become a silly wizard so Howie(Silly wizard)sets a task. Find outn who the girls in the mural are an what ABCDE WHEEL stabds for. This is a great book. 1,000 stars.

I tutor grade schoolers and my soon-to-be 6th grader picked this book to read over the summer. It was such a great book. Perfect for a pre-teen who wants to move beyond Harry Potter and challenging enough to feel accomplished after reading it. I was surprised at the level of vocabulary used by the author. My student had to work at some of the words but this was good for vocabulary growth. Ms. Gordon develops her characters really well. There were quite a few names which required my student to make a flow-chart in order to make the connections but this was excellent practice for harder novels. My student loved the Silly Wizard story that permeates the book plus she loved the challenge of decoding the mystery of the mural at the boarding school. I loved that it was a nice clean book that had adult ideas (divorce, social relationships, etc.) but it didn't cross any lines.

I have always loved books about boarding school, but this one was maybe the best. It's incredibly fun figuring out Lydia's code, deciphering ABCDE WHEEL, and even giggling at her Mad Prawler narration. 3 thumbs up!