# Recommend some stories set in orphanages or boarding schools, please **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848 "2011-12-02T16:02:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jellyblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@jellyblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellyblue)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/41 "2011-12-06T06:53:44Z")
[Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=miss+peregrine%27s+home+for+peculiar+children&sprefix=miss+pere). Plus it has pictures! And Tim Burton’s directing the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/42 "2011-12-06T14:18:21Z")
Adopted Jane by Helen Fern Daringer. I loved this book as a kid, even though the title is a spoiler. She’s in an orphanage from age 3 to 10, although this book is mostly about how she visits families on the outside for one summer. It’s set around the year 1900. (Remember when you could say “the turn of the century” for that time?) ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/43 "2011-12-06T14:46:55Z")
You mention _Cider House Rules_ in your OP, but almost any John Irving book has a boarding school in there, somewhere. Well, maybe not all, but _The World According to Garp_ and _The Hotel New Hampshire_ certainly do. Probably another one or two that I’m not remembering. ---
**Author:** ![Puff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce73a5/32.png) [@Puff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Puff)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/44 "2011-12-06T15:18:08Z")
nice genre choice, niche within a niche! I certainly second the selection above of The Hole… yes it is gratuitous attempt to have keira knightly on screen as often as possible in rapidly degrading attire, but it is also a very good study of young adult relationships and surprised me at the depth of the suspense it created. My other 2 reccomendations would be more along the classic lines, Unman, Wittering & Zigo and If… (lindsay Anderson) - this is a must see, just splendid viewing. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/45 "2011-12-06T15:46:27Z")
John C. Wright’s astonishing _Chronicles of Chaos_ series. I say “astonishing” because you’d think there was nothing original left to write about magical orphans in an English boarding school. You’d be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/46 "2011-12-06T18:41:49Z")
_They Cage the Animals at Night_ is a true story of a boy who was raised part of the time in an orphanage. _Suprised by Joy_ takes place partially in a boarding school and it is very good. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/47 "2011-12-06T19:50:38Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Roald Dahl’s Boy: Tales of a Childhood has a large boarding school part. Plus, what a childhood he had! Seconded! Dahl’s mother must have been one of the mentally strongest people who ever lived. > [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Adopted Jane by Helen Fern Daringer. I loved this book as a kid, even though the title is a spoiler. She’s in an orphanage from age 3 to 10, although this book is mostly about how she visits families on the outside for one summer. It’s set around the year 1900. (Remember when you could say “the turn of the century” for that time?) Actually, Jane’s parents died when she was nine months old. She had no memory of them. ---
**Author:** ![Deegeea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Deegeea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deegeea)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/48 "2011-12-06T22:17:52Z")
Fell, Fell Back, and Fell Down by M. E. Kerr ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/49 "2011-12-06T23:44:37Z")
[Hex Hall](http://www.amazon.com/Hex-Hall-Book-Rachel-Hawkins/dp/1423121392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323214967&sr=8-1) is another series-in-progress thats (sort of) boarding school - there’s significant action away from the school grounds in one of the books, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/50 "2011-12-06T23:46:38Z")
> [@jellyblue](#): > > [Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=miss+peregrine%27s+home+for+peculiar+children&sprefix=miss+pere). Plus it has pictures! And Tim Burton’s directing the movie. I’m reading this now for the [Forever Young Adult Book Club](http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/fya-book-club-locations/) this month and it’s fantastic! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/51 "2011-12-07T00:42:16Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > The Billy Bunter series by Richmal Compton ? I think you mean _Just William_ and that’s not set in a boarding school. [Billy Bunter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bunter), more famously a comic strip, was by Frank Richards. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/52 "2011-12-07T00:51:18Z")
> [@Deegeea](#): > > Fell, Fell Back, and Fell Down by M. E. Kerr Those were mentioned in the OP, but you reminded me that M.E. Kerr’s novel _Little Little_ (1981) was set in part at some kind of orphanage or boarding school for kids with special needs. I can’t remember exactly, but one of the main characters grew up in an institutional setting. Incidentally, M.E. Kerr attended a boarding school herself in the 1940s, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some of her other books dealt with the subject. ---
**Author:** ![jehan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jehan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jehan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/53 "2011-12-07T05:24:39Z")
Many years before Harry Potter was published, Diana Wynne Jones wrote “Witch Week”, set in a witches’ boarding school. It’s a wonderful book, with quite a different feel to the HP series. I would recommend it highly (along with her other YA fantasy books. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/54 "2011-12-07T15:29:40Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Malory Towers. This is a cute British series of books set in a boarding school somewhere along the coast (?). At least one of the stories had an OUTRAGEOUS American exchange student. I got mine from the UK and it seems that it may be difficult to get if you are in the US. There’s also [St. Clare’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Clare%27s_%28series%29) by the same author, Enid Blyton. She was very popular in the UK as a kids author a while back, notsomuch nowadays as she’s rather un-PC in retrospect! ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/55 "2011-12-07T16:22:18Z")
Definitely not set in the last thirty years but one I’d recommend is \*Sons of Fortune \*by Malcolm MacDonald. The third part of the World from Rough Stones family sage set in Victorian times it covers the period when the English boarding school as we know it (and recognise from so many other books) was just emerging from the old anarchic mold. The time of Arnold and the transformation of Rugby School post _Tom Brown’s Schooldays_. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/56 "2011-12-07T16:28:42Z")
The Swedish novel [Ondskan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondskan_(novel)), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film of the same name (and translated to [Evil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evil_(film)) in English language markets) is really rather good. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/57 "2011-12-07T22:09:59Z")
**Father Flannegan of Boys Town** and it poor step…um, -brother I guess, **Boy’s Ranch**. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/58 "2011-12-08T14:24:38Z")
Life With Mother Superior by Jane Trahey was set in a convent boarding school. Later made into the hilarious movie “The Trouble With Angels,” starring Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell, the book was reissued under that title. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/59 "2011-12-09T05:38:44Z")
Good Times Bad Times by James Kirkwood. Was it really 30 years ago that I read it in high school? ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848/60 "2011-12-09T18:49:06Z")
> [@GovernmentMan](#): > > School Ties? Coming in to recommend this! One of my favorite movies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-stories-set-in-orphanages-or-boarding-schools-please/604848.md?page=4)