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Children's Fiction School & Education

Strictest School in the World, The

Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken

by (author) Howard Whitehouse

illustrated by Bill Slavin

Publisher
Kids Can Press
Initial publish date
Aug 2006
Category
School & Education
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781553378822
    Publish Date
    Aug 2006
    List Price
    $18.95

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Where to buy it

Out of print

This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 9 to 12
  • Grade: 4 to 7

Description

In the kick-off novel in the Mad Misadventures series, 14-year-old pioneering aviatrix Emmaline Cayley is afraid of one thing: plummeting to her doom. Fortunately, 12-year-old Robert Burns, an indestructible village boy, is not. Absurdly unafraid of bodily harm, “Rubberbones” is the ideal pilot for Emmaline's experiments with flight.

But before Emmaline can perfect a flying machine with the aid of her new friend, she is sent off to St. Grimelda's School for Young Ladies --- to be cured of her decidedly unladylike ways. It is a school so strict, so severe, so forbidding that it makes the brutal misery in the tales of Charles Dickens look cheery by comparison. With a horrifying headmistress, terrifying teachers and food that is even worse than Aunt Lucy's, this medieval stronghold also houses a terrible secret and a mysterious way of keeping its prisoners, er, its students in line. All Emmaline can think of is escape. But no one has ever escaped from St. Grimelda's. And our heroine soon realizes that the only way out is to face her greatest fear.

About the authors

Howard Whitehouse was born in Birmingham, England and now lives in New York State with his wife. Howard has been in a rock band, worked with troubled kids, and written two history books. Now, in addition to writing novels, he writes and designs history games and paints model soldiers. He attended the venerable King Edward VII School, the model for St. Grimelda’s.

Howard Whitehouse's profile page

Multiple award winning illustrator Bill Slavin was born in Belleville, Ontario. His work includes the acclaimed 'Stanley's Party' written by Linda Bailey, 'Who Broke the teapot!' as well as more than 100 award winning children's books.
Among his many honours, Bill has won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award, the Blue Spruce Award, the California Young Reader Medal and the Zena Sutherland Award for Children's Literature. Recently, he has returned to his childhood love of comics and graphic novels, writing and illustrating the graphic novel trilogy Elephants Never Forget, as now the Mordecai Crow trilogy. Quid Pro Crow is Bil's second book with Renegade Arts Entertainment.

Bill Slavin's profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Book of the Year Award - Bronze Medal, ForeWord Magazine

Editorial Reviews

This comic tale is goofy and fun ... Slavin's intricate pen-and-ink drawings are properly atmospheric.

School Library Journal

A fun novel ...

The Toronto Star

Librarian Reviews

The Strictest School in the World: Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken (Mad Misadventures of Emmaline and Rubberbones)

A hilarious off-kilter adventure novel, set in a Victorian England awash with ramshackle inventions, supposedly extinct beasts, eccentric great-aunts, butlers and geniuses.

Source: The Canadian Children’s Book Centre. Canadian Children’s Book News. 2007.

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