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The Strictest School in the World series by Howard Whitehouse

January 23, 2009 by Carrie

Don’t even waste your time reading this review. Just go find a copy and start reading! I first heard about this series because Sherry of Semicolon fame wrote up a review of the third book in the series, The Island of Mad Scientists (published by Kids Can Press). Sherry said it was laugh out loud funny and since I know we share a love of laughter over Wodehouse, I figured it was a safe bet that I’d like this series. And it was. Safe. Very safe. I LOVE this series.

The books begin with the title, The Strictest School in the World — Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines Mostly Broken or The Mad Misadventures of Emmaline and Rubberbones. Yup, that’s the title and, as Sherry said, it should tell you everything you need to know about the books.

In the first tale we meet Emmaline Cayley, a fourteen year old self proclaimed aviatrix. She is on a quest to build a flying machine but her mother feels it would be more important to be sent to a finishing school for young ladies were she can learn the art of, well, being more feminine. As it turns out, she is sent to what truly is The Strictest School in the World, St. Grimelda’s School for Young Ladies, where the matron is unbearable and big ugly “birds” guard the fortress-like compound. Thank goodness for Emmaline though, she has a crazy and eccentric Aunt Lucy who, along with her body guard and a young boy named “Rubberbones”, she is rescued from the compound and released for more adventures!

In The Faceless Friend — Being the Tale of a Criminal Mastermind, His Masked Minions and a Princess with a Butter Knife, Involving Explosives and a Certain Amount of Pushing and Shoving (I can’t stop laughing just typing that!) the story is centered around trying to save Princess Purnah from a ruthless gang of brutes who want to kidnap her. (Princess Purnah, btw, was one of Emmaline’s inmates classmates at St. Grimelda’s and managed to escape along with Emmaline to freedom. Sherlock Holmes makes an appearance in this book, along with all of the old fun loving characters in this sequel that does not disappoint.

Now, if this next admission is not a strong recommendation, I don’t know what is. I crashed through the first two books (laughing out loud all the way) so that I could publish a review of them. It was a delight to do so but now I’m in the middle of the third book, The Island of Mad Scientists — Being an Excursion to the Wilds of Scotland, Involving Many Marvels of Experimental Invention, Pirates, a Heroic Cat, a Mechanical Man and a Monkey, and I really just want to savor it. I’m about half way through and am wanting to finish up this review so that I can just linger on in the third book for awhile. I want to linger because I haven’t heard tell of a fourth book just yet and I’m not sure how long I’m going to have to wait for it so I need to take my time with this tasty treat.

I love this series. I heart this series. I think fantastically wonderful thoughts about this series. I’m going way overboard stressing my point, don’t you think?

In short, I cannot thank Sherry enough for highlighting this book and I’m pretty sure you’ll thank me too if you just go out and pick up a copy. You know you want to . . .

Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know.

Filed Under: 12 and up, 5 Star Reads, Carrie, Fiction, Humor, Middle Grade Chapter Books

« Books on Screen: The Princess Bride
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Comments

  1. Sherry Early says

    January 23, 2009 at 12:26 am

    De nada. (Tr: You’re welcome.)

  2. Deanna says

    January 23, 2009 at 7:57 am

    This looks like a fun book that my girls would love. We were just browsing through Amazon last night trying to find something. I just now went and purchased the first book. Thanks for the review.

  3. Katrina (Callapidder Days) says

    January 23, 2009 at 11:11 am

    Oh, they sound delightful! The titles alone are enough to pull me in, but your ringing endorsement cements the deal.

  4. Carrie K. says

    January 23, 2009 at 11:03 pm

    I have these on my wish list since reading Sherry’s review – I think they would make great read-alouds! I’m currently reading the second Benedict Society aloud to my kiddos.

  5. Howard Whitehouse says

    January 24, 2009 at 9:04 am

    Thanks very much for the glowing review here! I really appreciate it.

  6. Lindsey says

    January 24, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    These sound great – I hadn’t heard of them before so I thank you for the recommendation. 🙂 I think I’ll enjoy them and I have a niece who likes this type so I’ll pass them on to her after.

  7. Christy says

    April 2, 2011 at 1:25 pm

    These books sound fun! I’ll try them 🙂 what age range are they meant for though? I’m wondering if my 7 yr old would like them.

Trackbacks

  1. Saturday Review of Books: January 24, 2009 at Semicolon says:
    January 26, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    […] (Family Shoes)6. Semicolon (The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks)7. 5M4B (A Mercy)8. 5M4B (The Strictest School in the World series)9. 5M4B (The Little Giant of Aberdeen County)10. 5M4B (The Apothecary’s Daughter)11. 5M4B […]

  2. A Big Bloggy Giveaway of Books says:
    June 2, 2009 at 6:52 pm

    […] Strictest School in the World series from Kids Can Press (set of 3 chapter books) The Day Leo Said I Hate You […]

  3. Kids’ Picks: A review of C’s summer | Callapidder Days says:
    September 15, 2009 at 2:27 pm

    […] picked up The Strictest School in the World after reading Carrie’s review of the series on 5 Minutes for Books. C. is very glad I did. These books are filled with fun, adventure, and humor (just check out their […]

  4. Hope Is the Word » Blog Archive » Tuesday Night (Bookish) Miscellany says:
    January 18, 2011 at 8:41 pm

    […] read them, but at $21 for the set (hardback and signed by the author, no less!), I’m there!  Carries loves them, and so does Sherry.  That seals the deal for […]

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