Okay, on the fourth contest, you guys OUTDID YOURSELVES. This was very tough to call! There were great arguments for everybody from Roger and Mimi from “Rent” to Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala from “Star Wars” to Monica and Chandler from “Friends.” You guys love Edward and Bella, Remy & Dexter, Jace and Clary, Anne and Gilbert, Ennis and Jack, Hermione and Snape (in fanfic, all things are possible), Janie and Cabel, Constantine and Rae, not one but two couples named Tony and Maria (whether from “Chasing Windmills” or “West Side Story”) and even the originals, Romeo and Juliet.
But ultimately I had to pick a winner, so I went with Patricia, who nominated Alice and Paul from The Last Summer of You and Me by Ann Brashares. I haven’t read this book yet, but after I saw Patricia’s entry, I knew I would have to! And if that’s not a great entry, I don’t know what is. Patricia, I’ll e-mail you about sending off your prizes (the AMAZING Stealing Heaven, plus Evernight and the gift certificate. Everyone else, thanks for creating some amazing entries.
In fact, the entries were so great that I decided this week I’d have to give away multiple prizes ….
As you guys probably know by now, Evernight takes place at a boarding school, Evernight Academy, which is a very unusual place (to say the least). So this week’s contest is in the school’s honor.
The rules: I want you to Tell me your favorite school in fiction. You can pull from movies, books, TV or anything else. Is it Hogwarts? Neptune High? The Constance Billard School for Girls? Tell me why! This can be either the school you’d love to go to or the one you’re most glad you don’t attend. And yes, it’s fine to say “the school where they all get locked up in The Breakfast Club” or something like that if you don’t know the exact name. You can even nominate a real school as long as you tell me why it’s the perfect setting for that book, TV show, etc. that you love so much.
The prizes: The best entry wins a $100 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble. Everybody else who enters will be put into a drawing, and four winners from that group will each receive a $25 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble. So you have two ways to win.
Ready, set, go!
(Finally, has anybody out there heard from hersheekiss358? She was one of two winners last week, but hasn’t checked in with an address for me to mail her prize. If you’re out there, drop me a line!)
Bard Academy!
What would be more amazing then going to school and being taught by the ghosts of dead authors who are in a sort of purgatory. Also, when the authors or the main character read from special books… it’s possible for characters to come alive. The school currently is home of Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights (remember… he disappeared for awhile.) I think it’d be a dream come true… except for the part when Dracula was roaming the area.
samantha
xjohnnynonamex@yahoo.com
My favorite school in fiction is hands down Sunnydale High. During the first three seasons of Buffy, it poignantly reflected Buffy’s own struggles with demons and the forces of darkness in her everyday life. In seasons 2 and 3 especially, the writers really used the school and the daily life and trials of a teenager as a brilliant metaphor that snuggled up perfectly with the struggles Buffy was working through as a Slayer. Stand out episodes in my mind are “School Hard”, “I Only Have Eyes For You”, “What’s My Line?” and “Graduation Day” just for starters.
Every time I watch the prom episode and Buffy gets the Class Protector award, I cry like a little tiny girl who just skinned her knee. And then in later seasons, when Buffy got the job as a counselor at the newly rebuilt Sunnydale High? Stroke of genius! Who better than Buffy to get kids through the demons of that high school, real or psychological? Oh Sunnydale, I miss you.
1st runner up? Bayside High School. Who didn’t want to be so excited, so excited, so scared? I know I did!!
such a typical response–hopefully with an original spin
I would like to take the simple route:
Hogwarts.
I don’t know if I’m the only one to feel this pull–this nagging need–to go to a school like Hogwarts if not the original itself. It doesn’t even have to be magical (even though that would be infinitely better and more enjoyable–as well as interesting and unique) but a boarding school where you live in a castle. Where you’re divided into four houses–Gryffindor, Ravenclaw(that’s me), Hufflepuff, and Slytherin or any new houses alike–and compete for a House Cup. Where each house is like it’s own school when competing in sporting events–as much as I’d love to play Quidditch, I’ll settle for volleyball. Where you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the Great Hall at huge tables filled with whatever food you could possibly want. Where you have beautiful grounds for studying, walking, reading, listening to music or hanging out. Where you have a lake with a kind giant squid swimming around, lifting first years out of the water. Which, oddly, brings me to my next point: Where you spend seven years of your life, the first years coming in by boat, the rest coming in by horsedrawn–or drawn by apparently nothing at all–carraiges. A place where paintings cover the walls, where everything is beautifully old and architectural. A school you love to go to.
A place for escape. A place of inspiring beauty. A place that evokes so much…feeling that it takes your breath away.
Just a boarding school, some friends, a couple teachers, and books. Just an ordinary place of ordinary mundane magic. A place that can be written about with such skill, talent.
My favorite school in fiction isn’t Hogwarts itself, it’s everything Hogwarts embodies, everything Hogwarts is–can be, everything that I’ve spent my life wanting. It’s a school of knowledge. An actual school with actual learning. It’s a school with huge libraries, a school with huge grounds, a school with huge halls and classes and everything. An overwhelming school.
Something you look up to.
Congrats to Patricia!
I think my favorite school in fiction at the moment would be Perkins Day from Sarah Dessen’s Lock & Key. It’s a place where you’d expect people to be stuck-up and to carry themselves as though they’re above everyone else, but even though most of the students come from important families or have loads of money, they have groups that do fundraisers and nice things for others. I also like Perkins Day because of students like Ruby & Olivia, who aren’t rich or important, but are eventually happy there anyway.
Paige
paigeaniyah@gmail.com
Evernight Contest #5
Ooooh, this is sooo hard…Ok, ok, I’ll pick the Gallagher Academy for Girls from Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls series. Because, well, it trains spies. The girls learn advanced martial arts, are fluent in multiple languages, and can kill a man seven different ways. The Gallagher Academy masquerades as an exclusive private school for geniuses, so most of the normal kids think the students are snobby rich girls. The girls are sent on field operations for their exams and crack CIA codes for extra credit. Secret passages (behind tapestries, of course) lurk inside the walls and passwords are required to access the sub-levels. Plus, their security system is really, really awesome. The teachers are the best in their fields. Basically, the whole school is a mystery, even to those living within its red brick walls.
I am voting for the television “Fame” school, which in real life is NYC’s own Laguardia High School. From all the esprit and joie de vivre of dancing on taxi cabs and drumming in the hallways, to Debbie Allen’s sweat-paying speech, and all the awesome 80s hair one can behold, I was enraptured every week. I don’t know much about the actual Laguardia, except that not only do they have a Model U.N. club, but they also boast 2 knitting clubs and a satirical newspaper called “The Turnip”. Already it’s better than my high school.
Gallagher Academy – for spies!!
Well, I have to say that the fictional school I have found the most awesome of all (besides Hogwarts; I mean, who wouldn’t love a magical school?) is the Gallagher Academy from Ally Carter’s spy series. Seriously, I would totally love it there. With all the sneaking and hidden passageways, it’s almost like a non-magical Hogwarts. I know it’s extremely rigorous academically, but I think I could catch up (given some time), and besides, I think a spy’s life (or one in training) is way exciting. I could do with some adrenaline in my life. Seriously. Gallagher Academy is way awesome, with all the secret gadgets and really cool people. I could get used to that kind of atmosphere.
And of course, when the guy spies come to visit, there’s no telling what kind of fun I’d get into!
best school
i would hands down have to say gallagher acadamy. it has all the secret passage ways, and the forbiden loves. and the fact that its an all girl spy school one of the most interesting book series ive read, by ally carter
sarah
bbllchc125@yahoo.com
Favorite Fictional School
I don’t know if I’m just obssesed with Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea or what, but I would have to say my favorite is the school Anne teaches at where the Pringles try and take her out. The characters are just so great and you can never beat a private boarding school setting, even if it is the nonvampire/magical type.
Favorite Fictional School
I don’t know if I’m just obssesed with Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea or what, but I would have to say my favorite is the school Anne teaches at where the Pringles try and take her out. The characters are just so great and you can never beat a private boarding school setting, even if it is the nonvampire/magical type.
-Amee
(amee821@hotmail.com)
Re: Favorite Fictional School
So sorry for the double post but I didn’t mean to make it anonymous!
Contest
I would choose St. Vladimir’s Academy from Vampire Academy. At Vladimirs if you’re a Moroi you’re trained in the history of vampires and how to be a good vamp. When you find out what it your element (water, fire, wind, earth) you are trained on how to use it for good. You have blood donors in the school during lunch (if you’re thirsty) and when you turn 18 you get a guardian to protect you from the Strigoi (hunt Moroi’s).
Now if you’re a dhampir you get trained in the martial arts. You learn different techniques on how to beat your opponents and how to take care of your Moroi. You’re taught the basics which you learn in high school and you train your body and turn it into a lean fighting machine. Dhampirs are half vampires and half human so they are faster and stronger than your average humans. I would love to attend this school because I would be trained and taught how to enhance my powers to their greatest ability. My name is Carolina and you can contact me at watts_gurl@sbcglobal.net
First of all, congratulations to Patricia ^^
Now, to today’s quest!
I was giving this a lot of thought, when it hit me, a childhood memory. See, my school days are over, so I long almost any school, but on my tender student days (come on! It was only a few years ago), I knew exactly which school I was willing to attend to, and that was Xavier Institute for Higher Learning (from the X-Men comics).
So, let’s check it’s points:
1. You have to be a mutant in order to study there. This means you must have some cool power: telepathy, super fast healing, control over some element, etc. Who doesn’t want that kind of thing?
2. You are in an environment that is specially prepared for your needs, both as a mutant and as a regular student. This means that you can train yourself in order to control your ability better, and at the same time, have one of the best regular educations.
3. You get to live there. Living? With my friends? That rocks!
4. The building is AWESOME! Secret passages, training rooms, cutting-edge technology… how many schools have their own jet?
5. Your teachers, and yourself maybe, save lives and fight wars in order to maintain the peace in daily basis. You are living and being taught by HEROES.
6. You are not alone, you are not discriminated because of your mutation, you are not bullied for being a freak. Instead, you are warmly welcomed, and get the opportunity to make friends, to belong…
7. The headmaster of your school is Charles Xavier. He’s so wise and intelligent, he always has a piece of advice for you. And he’s full of hope, he gives you hope.
8. Unlike other schools, Xavier’s school let you make your mind. If you decide to take the wrong path, despite all the warnings, they let you; and if you want to return, you are very welcome to do so, as the prodigal son.
9. You are renamed. Now you have a cool nickname that matches your abilities.
10. “For Higher Learning”. That name is brilliant or what? You know that it’s just a facade, but still is awesome. Everybody will think that you are gifted, some sort of genius! Which you are, only that even more special.
I’m showing my age here… Sweet Valley High. In SV, parents just give kids cars – and again when the kids smash the original. In Oz, kids have to save up and buy our own car.
Have a lovely day! 🙂
While it is a very, very beautiful school, I would absolutely not want to attend Sunnydale High. It’s over a hellmouth. The architecture of the original school was gorgeous (Giles’s library alone is almost enough reason for me to want to attend,) but, again: Hellmouth. And then! They build another school right on top! Hello! My graduating class had only lost one student in four years, and Sunnydale lost, like, one a week.
Rydell High! (from Grease)
What’s not to love about a high school that hosts a carnival and breaks spontaneously into songs? 😛
my fave fictional school
It would definitely be Hogwarts because I’ve always believed myself to be a witch and I would truly love to learn magic and spells. It surely is the perfect school for me, and I’m sure I’d ace at all my classes like Hermione because of my passion in Magical Studies. How I really wish that school really exists!!
bunny
bunnybox9 at gmail dot com
Thanks!
I’d have to go with the “Battle School” in the Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow books by Orson Scott Card. Not that I’m a proponent of brain-washing children at such a young age, but its a school where you get to play video games and train at null gravity as part of the curriculum! It perhaps naively always seemed to be a blast.
;]
I’m going to old school it and say John Adams High School, from..that’s right, Boy Meets World. I loved this show growing up and even today, its reruns are popular. Id love to go to a school where I felt safe and had people I could count on.
While there were bullies, they weren’t even that bad. I’d try to get into Cory’s clique, so Id know I would have awesome friends. Plus, Sean’s hot, and Eric’s funny. Id know I had people in my life who truly cared for me.
And then there’s Mr. Feeney. He could seem hard on them at times, but he truly just wanted to educate them. He wanted them to be safe and smart and do something with their lives. He followed them all throughout their schooling just to make sure it happened.
Who could ask for more?
Patricia
PatriciaGrider@gmail.com
My favourite school is Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. When I was little I really, really, really wanted to be part of the X-Men. So I tried anything and everything to see if I had any super powers so I can go to the school. Why? Because everyone in the school had super powers and I wanted to be part of that! Also the X-Men fought crime and I wanted to do that too lol. Everyone there was so accepting of everyone too, I thought that was so cool. No matter where you come from, everyone united together.
I jumped down the stairs to see if I could fly. I tried pushing the tv/tv cabinet to see if I had super strength. I tried walking through walls to see if I could go through it. Nothing worked, then my parents told me the sad truth that it wasn’t true. I cried so much that day.
I think Neptune High in the first season of Veronica Mars was the perfect setting for the sort of story they were telling (though I would NEVER want to go there!). The social structure of the school and the town were what made the mysteries of Lilly’s murder and Veronica’s rape and all the MotWs so compelling and so logical. While I love Hogwarts and Sunnydale, the rules and trends and institutions of both those schools tend to appear and disappear depending on plot convenience, but the world of Neptune High was consistently there and had a life of its own.
I can’t remember if the school is named, but I’d like to go to the girls school in Ancelstierre in Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy. Their lives are often in danger, living so close to the wall, but these schoolgirls are prepared to fight the forces of evil when needed. It would be terrifying sometimes, but wonderful. If you’re going to learn calculus, it’s better to learn it somewhere where you can defend your country if needed.
Wayside School
My favorite school in fiction would have to be Wayside School from Louis Sachar’s Wayside School series. When I was younger I loved those books, I could definitely read them again now actually. I think its funny that the school was supposed to be 30 classrooms and one story high but was mistakenly built 30 stories high. It was also funny how there was no floor 13 for suspicious reasons, and basically all the weird stuff that went on in the school. It definitely would have been creepy to be on one of the top floors and feel like the school was tilting at times. Even some of the teachers were a bit strange. All in all I think I would have loved to go to that school if it had been real, it would have made school so much more interesting. Wayside has actually been the only school I’ve ever really loved in a book or movie. Although I did love the hallways in the school featured in The Breakfast Club, if that was even a real school. I think I remember reading that it was somewhere.
But hands down Wayside School is my favorite school in fiction. =)
Alright now I need to search the book shelf for those books, I want to read them again!
Thanks for yet another great contest.
-Breanna
queenbloop@gmail.com
Okay, so I’m a very recent convert to Buffy. Now, I know that I’m a little late to the game, okay…VERY late to the game, but Sunnydale High is a school that I MOST DEFINITELY would not want to attend. Sure, it would be pretty cool to go to school with the Slayer and everything (even though I’m the type who wants to party with the vampires, though not those ones, they’re not very attractive) too many people die at that high school. They either die, disappear or get beaten by invisible students. Since I have no powers whatsoever and I’m certainly not a vampire (very sad…) I think my fighting skills are weak at best. I probably wouldn’t survive a week at Sunnydale High. It’s perfect for the Slayer, though, so she can solve all magical problems in 45 minutes to an hour, depending on commercials! 🙂
Track?
Out of the few schools I know of I would have to say Hogwarts. I love the castle setting, comfy dorm rooms and the classes deal with everyday type things instead of trying to teach you things that you’ll have no use for during the rest of your life. I like the idea of teaching about magic because it makes the user learn patience, structure and discipline. I would so love to be there right now!
Evernight #5 – Favorite fictional school
I would love to go the Children’s Academy of Dancing and Stage Training from Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes. Oh, how I wanted to wear a plain muslin practice dress and dance for Madame Fidolia! Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil would have been my best friends, of course, and maybe I would even have a small part in a matinee! I reread that book so many times that I really think that school is more real to me than Northeast Elementary- my head was certainly at the Children’s Academy more that it was in play at Northeast!
All the details about the practice rooms and the uniforms just helped me imagine I was a talented young dancer with a future on the stage, rather than a clumsy but eager amateur who would never even make it to blocked shoes! ^.^
My absolute favorite fictional school is Shrewsbury College, Oxford. That’s where Harriet Vane once studied history, and where she returned in Gaudy Night to investigate a mystery, regain her sense of self, and finally accept Lord Peter Wimsey’s proposal.
Sayers’ love for Oxford shines through on every page, and Shrewsbury is populated by a lovely communty of flawed, complicated, smart women, all focused on intellectual life and so wonderfully articulate. Just reading their conversation makes me happy. I’d love to live in a place where everyone talked like that.
First off, *WAVES* to you. We just friended each other on MySpace and saw your blog about this…so here I am!!
I think I’d have to pick Spence Academy for Girls from the “Great and Terrible Beauty” book series. I love that the school is a real home for Gemma and it is where she discovers all of the amazing things that her past includes and discovers the person that it shapes her into. Plus…it’s where she finds and loses love. *Pout*
Oh geez! What a hard decision, there are so many schools in fiction that I would love to go to!
Okay this one is pretty new to me. I just read Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs not to long ago, and in the novel the school, I think it is called Plato’s Academy. Anyway the students of this school are descendants of Greek Gods! And they all have powers according to the god they are descended from. It that not the coolest thing ever! You can have powers and you don’t even have to go to Hogwarts! I just thought it was an awesome idea, plus I love greek mythology and I will go to Greece someday. This is definitely in my top five favorite schools in fiction!
And yes, it’s fine to say “the school where they all get locked up in The Breakfast Club” or something like that if you don’t know the exact name.
Can I get any points if I can tell you the name of that actual school maybe not the movie one, but the one they used in it? (I went to it :))
As fun as it might be to say the one from the Breakfast Club–just to see if the library would be the same fictionally as it was in life (I’d never considered that before, but for some reason, thsi post made me….) I’m going to have to go with the school from A Little Princess for my choice, Miss Minchin’s Seminary for Young Ladies.
Based on the movie I love that school. I know the French teacher didn’t always know much and it was run by a mean old woman who doesn’t give a lick about children. But there’s also her sister who does care about children and is looking for true love and the girls who really care about each other and I love the time period it’s in.
I also love the stories Sara tells the girls and how they’re all so captivated by her boundless imagination and the fact that she (and later Becky) can keep herself from giving into misery even ater everything is taken away and she loses her father by telling her stories and remembering what he’s told her and being the one to keep hope and joy alive for the girls. And then, when it’s all coming apart, magic finds them again and they’re both rescued from it all.
It doesn’t have the magic of vampires or witches or werewolves like so many of the other books or movies I read/see set in schools but there’s so, so much imagination to it all and it’s all coming from the mind of a seven-year-old girl who refuses to let a group of young girls–and herself-be lost to the monotony of the life that the early 20th century wants to give them in a London girls’ boarding school. Through just her mind and her willpower, she makes the school fun for them all and teaches them how to think and enjoy life snd for that reason alone I absolutely love the school in A Little Princess possibly more than any other fictional school 🙂
I think that my favorite school in fiction would be that of the high school from the manga ‘Ouran High School Host Club”.
Now, if you’ve read the manga you know that there are various reasons why the school is so awesome.
1) It’s a richrich school. So you’re surrounded with money and so the school has got to have some great technology and campus.
2)It has an assortment of great guys (albeit a bit weird)
3) It’s the perfect place to become a golddigger (hehe..kidding =p)
4) There are gazllions of clubs, so there has to be a place for everyone. (I mean there are clubs for hosts, black magic, american football..newspapers, karate, visual arts..and probably anything you can think of)
5) Since there’s a black magic club…maybe I can cast a spell on my teachers to give me an A+.
6)The school IS featured in a manga…so if I went there, I’d become a MANGA STAR!!!!! (ahaha i wonder how I’d look mangafied!!
I think if I was going to chose an High School that I would most want to attend, I think it would be Capeside High. Firstly, the whole town was beautiful. Second, there was always some kind of drama going on in the high school. And of course there was the very attractive boys who once they fell in love with you, really fell in love with you. But most of all–it seemed like every kid that went that high school was blessed wih a superior vocabulary, and that wouldn’t suck (as you see, I am in desperate need of one of those).
Oh, and did I mention Pacey. Sa-woon.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Okay, so I just finished writing this and it definitely took me a little while to pick a school that I could write about…this one won!
-Lauren B.
lauren51990@aol.com
If I could go to any school it would definitely be Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There are many reasons why I would pick to go here and I shall list them for you one by one below.
1.Obviously, if you are going to Hogwarts you are a witch or a wizard and that would be pretty amazing. The studies wouldn’t be as boring as your regular math and science at school and you would be able to do things that you only dreamed about.
2.Also, if I had to pick a person that I’m most like in the book, it would probably be Hermione Granger. I love to read, I get along with guys pretty well and have a few of them as close friends, I’ve never dated anyone (yes, I know she has, but for awhile, she didn’t…), I have crazy brown hair (not curly, but it gets frizzy and poofy), and I’m sometimes bossy when it comes to my guy friends (HAH!). The reason I mention my similarities to Hermione is because if I’m so much like her, I would love to be able to go to Hogwarts and find the same friends and adventures she did.
3.Third, Hogwarts is a boarding school and though the idea frightens me, I would love to be able to get the boarding school experience. You’re away from home with only your teachers and friends. It’s like college, but when you’re still young and not completely “on your own” yet, which I must admit, is a nice thought.
4.Your headmaster is Albus Dumbledore. It just seemed like the quintessential grandfather. He does frighten me at times when he gets upset or disappointed, but beyond that, he’s just a funny, advice giving “grandfather.” He’s always willing to give people second chances and genuinely cares for you. I love that!
5.Next, you get put into a house. I know that that sometimes produces competition and hostility inside the school, but it also gives people a place to go and something to belong too. If I had to be honest, I would probably be put into the “dreaded” Hufflepuff, but I think it would actually be a perfect place for me. I’m pretty honest for the most part, very loyal to my friends and family, and I try to be the nicest person I can be. Pretty standard Hufflpuff qualities.
6.Hogwarts also has one and only sport: Quidditch. For a non-sports person like me, this sounds amazing. Quidditch is one sport that I would not mind watching at all. You get to watch girls and guys (often pretty cute ones too!) fly around and try to make goals and catch the snitch. Flying! How exciting is that? I think it’s much better then football…where all the guys seem to do is run up and down a field trying to jump on each other (Like I said, not a sports person…)
7.They have a wicked sweet library at the school. For a book lover, that is ideal! My school’s library is more like a walk in closet, so Hogwarts’ definitely sounds like a dream for me.
8.You get to have massive feasts for practically every single meal. I’m used to school food and actually enjoy it, unlike most people, but to have a wide variety of things to eat for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner sounds absolutely amazing.
9.You have a chance to make some of the BEST FRIENDS you’ll ever meet, just like Harry, Hermione, and Ron. They are always there for each other through thick and thin and I would love to meet some friends that were even SLIGHTLY like those three. Along with friends, you have the chance to meet the love of your life…like those three as well.
10.The last reason is because…it’s Hogwarts School and Witchcraft and Wizardry. ‘Nuff said!
ok so yeah. I’m 27….but I would totally love to go to Eastside High in the Highschool Musical movies. I went through highschool in a student run (rather pathetic) show choir program after school. To a girl who was only marginally good at singing and dancing…and doing them both at the same time..I never stood a chance at being in the real theater so that was it. To go to a school where spontaneous song and dance break out would be fantastic.
And yes…I sing the songs at the before and after school program I run and amuse the kids to no end!
Really long one about Spence! (sorry!)
I am generally known to be a very indecisive person, so I going to tell you my favourite fictional school, the school I’d least like to go to AND a random silly one! (If that’s ok?!) =D
First, I have to say I totally agree with dravenscrow about Spence Academy for Young Ladies (From the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray)! I just love the setting, a cool dusky castle, which appears flawless on the outside, but has so many dark secrets hidden inside. There’s more to Spence than meets the eye, which is very mysterious- and who doesn’t love a good mystery?!
The grounds are beautiful, with a lake nearby and rowboats. There are also woods surrounding Spence are beautiful (especially when it snows), and it has a church that is grand but also a little creepy (otherwise it would be too boring!). They have dancing, art and elocution lessons as well as other such fun things that have absolutely nothing to do with algebra! Or 1000-word chemistry essays! On top of that they had travelling players perform multiple times and they held fancy-schmancy balls, (both fun/costume and formal) which required them to dress up in ridiculously gorgeous (and expensive) dresses! And this is all in the name of education!
I know what you’re thinking! This sounds like a big estrogen party, (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) so where are all the guys? Why, they’re in the forest of course! Haha, I’m only half kidding but another neat thing about Spence is that there’s a group of Gypsies who camp on Spence’s grounds. Also in the last book, there were a lot of builders at Spence that were rebuilding the burnt East Wing. So, there were plenty of men to ogle at and flirt with (and maybe have a sneaky affair with), if you’re into that kind of thing!
There is the magical aspect to Spence (who doesn’t love magic, either!), seeing as it was the headquarters of the Order, which was a secret organization group of women that protected and maintained the magical realms. (And they helped people who were passing on in the afterlife) This also leads to Spence having tons of gothic ‘sculptures’ of gnomes, pixies and gargoyles that are actually real and inexplicably come to life! (But, don’t worry the gargoyles are actually nice!)
But of course you don’t have to be magical or a member of the Order for Spence to change your life! Another reason why Spence is so great is its sense of female empowerment. Now, I am definitely not a feminist but Spence was great in its subtlety at pushing the bounds of their male-dominated society! (Did that even make sense? =D) has a lot of A Great and Terrible Beauty was set in 1895, the turn of the century- when women were just starting to want more for themselves than being an accessory to their husbands. In the first book their art teacher, Miss Moore openly encourages everyone to think for themselves despite what society has to say about it. Things like this would’ve shown these young girls that their opinions really did matter, which I think is really awesome. There were also some other teachers at Spence that didn’t exactly fit into the stereotypical female mold, such as Miss McCleethy who taught the girls Archery and other things that probably weren’t what ‘proper’ young ladies should be taught.
The teachers at Spence are dedicated to their students, and always go above and beyond the call of duty. For example, the original headmistress Eugenia Spence sacrificed herself and saved two students (Sarah Rees-Toome and Mary Dowd) from being killed by a Winterlands creature! Miss Nightwing the new headmistress is also devoted to Spence, and does everything she can to keep Spence running. She and the other teachers always look for what’s in the best interest for all of their charges. (Continued…)
Re: Really long one about Spence! (the end bit!)
So, as you can see Spence is definitely not your average boring Victorian girls polishing school, but a force to be reckoned with!
Oh, and before I forget my least favorite school is:
Crunchem Hall from the book/movie Matilda! Miss Trunchbull (the evil headmistress) gives me shudders every time I think of her! Who would throw children out of windows and lock them is a closet that was full of nails? Someone that is pure evil!
My favorite silly school is:
The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too! Need I say more? =D
~Lucy D =)
(Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to be so long!) =D
Nightmare Academy
My choice for favorite school would be Nightmare Academy in the book of the same name by Dean Lorey. The scene that clinches it for me is the Trout of Truth. Children with overactive imaginations are able to create a link to the Netherworld and are recruited into the Nightmare Academy to learn how to banish creatures back to the Nether. You can either be a banisher or nethermancer/portal jockey, nethermancers open portals to the nether while the banishers fight the demons and force them into the portals. Which one you are is decided in sorting exercise involving the Trout of Truth, where you stand on a rock in the middle of the water and proclaim which you think you are, if you speak the truth the trout leaves you alone, if you are incorrect the giant trout jumps out of the water, swallows you whole, and then spits you out. Theodore is the main characters friend and he is insists that he is a banisher like his father before him, dad is very demanding and anything less will be a disappointment. Theodore though is a scrawny kid, he acts like he’s ten foot tall and can take on anyone or anything, but he’s just not cut out for the job. This results in a hilarious scene where he refuses to accept the Trout of Truth’s decision and keeps going back to the rock to get swallowed over and over again. I also like that the school and the book in general deal with facing and harnessing your fears and Lorey imbues his teachers with wonderful insight into dealing with the kids and their fears. The school itself is on an island near the Bermuda Triangle and the kids live in a huge banyan tree where shipwrecked ships make up the different houses and rooms on different levels of the tree. It’s all very clever, fun, and cool. Maybe I just like th e idea of going to school in a giant treehouse.