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Boarding School Redux

I just finished what feels like my umpteenth boarding school-related book, E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks.

Lockhart is a delightful writer, and this novel is her most accomplished yet, but I couldn't help feeling I'd read this before. Boarding school books aren't new—two of the most-read high school classics are A Separate Peace (1959) and Catcher in the Rye (1951). But the last few years have brought both John Green' s Printz Award winner, Looking for Alaska, and the Harry Potter books, which were all set at the boarding school of Hogwarts.

What is it about the boarding school that makes it such a popular setting? Is it the childhood desire for more kids and no parents? A way of making school seem exotic? Is it just a cultural touchstone, just like cats who help solve mysteries, or the wisecracking best friend?

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Boarding School Redux Anonymous April 18, 2008 04:12 PM

As you questioned, I think the main appeal of the "boarding school book" is that the parental units have been taken out of the picture. What teen hasn't wished to be away from mom and dad?!? (And yet, there are still the guiding characters who are there when needed.) The kids become the change agents, which empowers the young reader. "Hey, I can do something great, too!" And since the adolescent is so often in identify limbo, it helps to have someone whose life they can live vicariously. Someone who may experience some of the same issues, but who comes out as the victor in the end. #

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