The Strictest School in the World by Howard Whitehouse
Reviewed by KarenRatings
Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content
LANGUAGE
VIOLENCE
SEXUAL CONTENT
ADULT THEMES
The full title is: The Strictest School In The World: Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken. The Mad Misadventures of Emmaline and Rubberbones
Ratings Explanation
Language: The words “shut up” and “stupid” are each used once
Violence: Scary prehistoric pterodactyls are kept at the school compound and are used as scare tactics for keeping the girls in line. They attack Emmaline and Princess Purnah. Princess Purnah sets the Matron on fire, draws disturbing pictures of “acts of bloodshed”, and uses a kitchen knife as a weapon to “cut out her intestines”.
Synopsis
Emmaline, our principal heroine, is a 14-year-old pioneering aviatrix living in Victorian England. Although she loves building flying machines, she has a strong fear of flying herself. Luckily, a neighbor boy, affectionately known as “Rubberbones” because he is incapable of breaking and only bounces on impact, becomes Emmaline’s friend and pilot. Emmaline’s clueless parents then interrupt her inventing dreams and send her to St. Grimelda’s School for Young Ladies, where she is supposed to learn to become a proper young lady. St. Grimelda’s lives up to its name as the “strictest school in the world”. The girls live in constant fear of the birds, their intolerable teachers and the head matron. Emmaline, is unhappy at St. Grimelda’s and thinks only of escaping. But no prisoners, (er students), have every successfully escaped. Only by facing her greatest fear can our heroine escape. Emmaline is aided in her rescue by her eccentric Aunt Lucy, her butler Lal Singh, Rubberbones and their friends.
So, try reading the title without laughing. It is hard to do. Yes, that is the complete title and a fairly good synopsis. I found this book hilarious to read and wished I was reading it out loud to girls. (Something I should still do.) I liked the old-fashioned style of writing, the humorous characters, and the morals of courage indirectly taught. This book is the first in a 3-part series featuring many of the same characters.