The Secret School

rozeb - This is only THE greatest book ever. OK, so there's this girl named Ida. She absolutely loves school(which I can relate to). Anyways, the teacher's mother gets sick, so the school has to close. Which means Ida and her best friend Tom don't get to take their exams, so they can't go into high school the next year. Going to high school means everything to Ida, and she just has to take that exam. To her, the world would probably be over if she didn't go to high school. So then Tom has this brilliant idea: Ida could become the teacher. Ida hates the idea at first but then, she and her fellow classmates take a vote of Ida should be the teacher so then they voted her in. But they have to keep the school a secret. One day, a school inspection person comes in, and figures out about the school. She agrees to keep the school a secret, but the children all have to take the exams since Ida is not a certified teacher. So then one of the students, the one that is the troublemaker, hadn't come to school in a while so she went to see him. The boy's father then tells the school board about the secret school. But then the boy walks to Ida's house to tell her about the school board meeting (which, by the way, she wasn't supposed to know about) and she goes to the meeting. She stands up for the school and they decide that it couldn't do any harm to let them continue the school until the exams. They do, so then after everybody takes the exams and everyone except the troublemaker passes. But Ida still isn't sure that she'll be able to go to high school because her family has to have enough money for her to board somewhere. But then the inspection lady says she will let Ida stay at her house for free. So Ida and Tom go to high school and all is well. Ravi is such a great writer. I read The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle but The Secret School was so much better.

August 11, 2003

When the teacher at the one-room schoolhouse must depart unexpectedly, a 14-year-old girl swears the other students to secrecy and decides to take over the school in order to complete her exit exams. "Avi weaves together a fast-moving plot, solid characterizations, sharply tuned dialogue and a wealth of detail as he evokes rural Colorado in 1925," wrote PW. Ages 8-12.