School looks different for everyone this year and it’s making me feel wistful about my own school days gone by. I can’t help but think about the many books set at school, including one educational experience I never had: boarding school.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad school is long behind me. But there’s something about this time of year that makes me want to revisit those years through fictional characters, even as my own kids are doing their homework.
When a reader asked for books set at boarding schools on our What Should I Read Next Instagram account as a WSIRNReaderRecs request, we received a ton of great suggestions. We curated those suggestions for today’s book list, and added a stack of our in-house favorites, too. As so often happens when we ask our community for book recommendations, my TBR grew as a result.
Today I’m sharing books you love, books I love, and some I’m eager to read because of your enthusiastic recommendations. This list of 25 boarding school books covers a variety of genres from YA to thriller to literary fiction. And they’re not all set at swanky East Coast or magical schools! This is by no means an exhaustive list so I’d love to hear about your favorite books set at boarding schools in the comments.
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Never Let Me Go
Dread Nation
Picnic at Hanging Rock
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place
Every Heart a Doorway
He’s Come Undone: A Romance Anthology
Shadow of the Lions
Tiny Pretty Things
The Poppy War: A Novel
The School for Good and Evil
Truly Devious: A Mystery
The Similars
Good Girls Lie
Sweetgrass Basket
The Secret Place
Magic for Liars
When the Ground Is Hard
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Black Boy White School
Belzhar
A Study in Charlotte
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Hex Hall series
A Separate Peace
Catherine House
What are YOUR favorite boarding school novels? Tell us all about them in comments!
P.S. 10 campus novels that will take you back to your school days, and 15 books for new routines and fresh starts.
109 comments
Thank you for the list! Really enjoyed “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and will have to read “Never Let Me Go” this season!
Not set at a boarding school, but a class reunion at Cambridge, I just started Dorothy Sayers’ “Gaudy Night.”
Oops, I meant Oxford ☺️
I love Gaudy Night so much–reread it at least once a year, and I’ve gone through about 3 copies (I prefer paperbacks). When I went to Oxford at last, it was just magical having that book in mind. Such a great book AND a great mystery…
Okay…perhaps not the most stellar of books, but does anyone remember The Girls of Canby Hall series? Loved those when I was growing up in the 80s. 😀
Yes! The original series with Dana, Faith and Shelley and the new series with Jane, Toby and Andy. A piece of trivia – Courteney Cox was a model for one of the book cover illustrations.
My sister and I LOVED the Canby Hall books. We read them over and over again. My hands down favourite was the one where Shelley was kidnapped and had to send clues back to her roommates (oh! Struggling with names here. Dana? Darn!) so they could lead the police to find her. ☺️☺️
I loved that series too! My library had almost all of them and I had very strong opinions about each girl and which ones were my favorites. I have vivid memories of a scene where Jane got lost while out visiting Andy’s family in Texas and was surrounded by rattlesnakes.
I just came to comment on the exact same thing! I loved that series growing up. Of course I had to spend 20 minutes this morning googling to try to remember the series name!
Loved Canby hall!
One addition to your excellent list: The Affliction: a Novel, by Beth Gutcheon. Great writing (especially the dialogue) and interesting characters.
I really enjoyed Madeleine L’Engle’s “And Both Were Young.”
Oh, I adore “And Both Were Young” – I re-read it every couple of years, it’s a total comfort read.
I should have read the comments first… I recommended this one, also! 🙂
I like the Little House by the Sea series by Jenny Colgan, set at a boarding school in Cornwall, England. There are three so far, and they are inspired by the Malory Towers /St. Clares books by Enid Blyton. They are the perfect escapist read!
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/jenny-colgan-s-school-stories-for-grown-ups-1.2764524
Thank you for posting that. I thought I had read all the Jenny Colgan books. Now I have added those to my list. I didn’t realize she had written under a pen name!
I loved Enid Blyton when I was a young girl, and remember the Mallory Towers series well, along with the Famous Five and the Secret Seven series. She was a prolific writer! I still have many of those books stored here at home, although my kids never had any interest in them. I’ll have to check out the Jenny Colgan series. Thanks!
I loved the Famous Five and the Secret Seven books so much and was very frustrated that there never seemed to be any mysteries in my neighborhood to solve 😀 The St Clare’s and Mallory Towers books were my first school stories and then I moved on to The Chalet School. Great memories!
Same with me, Adrienne!
In fact, I have a Chalet School book on my bedside table now as my read for my kids’ book club this weekend 🙂
The Chalet School books are great old-fashioned boarding school books, and the Marlowe books by Antonia Forest–Cricket Term, Autumn Term, End of Term, and Attic Term–are also great for those who like Malory Towers. Of course, they are of their time and place, and I’d bet some of the content is jarring now, but I really enjoyed the quality of Forest’s books.
My TBR pile just grew to astronomical proportions. Thanks for the list!
This added a lot of books to my Overdrive wish list! My boarding school favorites are The Little Princess, Ella Enchanted, and the Harry Potter series. Childhood favorites, yes, but they are all well worth reading as an adult too.
The entire Truly Devious series was a 5 star read!
I loved Truly Devious. I devoured the serious on my libby app this quarantine in a matter of one weekend. So fun! I have heard there is a new book coming (#4 in the trilogy, haha! I love it when they do that) in 2021!
I agree! I’m reading book three and have loved the series!
A Separate Peace is my favorite! It the best book I read in high school. Others: Looking for Alaska by John Green. Harry Potter. Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (reform school). Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hi;ton and my favorite, To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield is my very favorite school novel of all time, followed by Good-bye Mrs Chips. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Please note that Truly Devious is the first in a series, and that you must read all of them to get any answers! I was Truly Frustrated and Annoyed that it ended with no solution.
Hi, are you sure Picnic at Hanging Rock reminds you of the tv series Lost? The description reminded me so strongly of a book I had read too (but I haven’t seen that tv show), and then I googled to figure it out. Force of Nature, by Jane Harper. Number two in the Aaron Fall series. LOVE this list, thanks for sharing!
‘The Bluffs’ by Kyle Perry is another new Australian book that I have heard described as Picnic at Hanging Rock meets Jane Harper.
A school excursion goes wrong in the Tasmanian Wilderness…it was great.
Never Let Me Go and A Separate Peace are two of my favorites. A boarding school novel I’ve been wanting to read (for years and years) is Wilberforce by H.S. Cross.
Borderliners by Peter Hoeg is one of my favorites. It may be hard to get hold of, but worthwhile. Are there any other Peter Hoeg fans out there?
I love Borderliners. Find it more satisfying than Never Let me Go (sorry Ann, I know that one is one of your favourites).
The River King by Alice Hoffman.
Gentlemen and Players – Joanne Harris
Yes, that’s one with a great twist!
Excellent book, so unusual ! That author has some great books.
I read The Swallows by Lisa Lutz earlier this year. I don’t think it’s her best book but it’s certainly an interesting take on Boarding Schools novels told, mainly, from the point of view of a new teacher.
Agree!
Ha, I hadn’t seen your comment before I posted about The Swallows, too!
Love the campus/ boarding school theme! I really enjoyed Picnic at Hanging Rock – perfect for this time of year. My daughter also really enjoyed – A Study in Charlotte and that whole series.
If you’ve read any of the above, do you think any would be good for a 15 year old (sophomore)? YA is tough to gauge sometimes. No problem with language but want to keep “steam” 🙂 to a minimum. A little romance is fine but don’t need anything explicit. Thanks in advance for any feedback! Happy Reading!!
“Winger” and its sequel, “Stand-Off” by Andrew James are older YA and SO GOOD.
I would recommend the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter. My favorite boarding school book series, about an elite spy school for girls. Clean, and little romance but definitely nothing explicit.
Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool is a wonderful
Middle grade read. A high functioning kid on the spectrum, a kid who lost his parents, and a search for the truth during the end of World War II. I feel like this is one where kids and adults will both enjoy it.
I recently read Navigating Early at the demand of my 12 year old niece. It was assigned reading in her 6th grade English class and I read along with her. The book was delightful.
Miss Pym Disposes, by Josephine Tey. A mystery novel – or is it?- and if not an ethical dilemma that won’t have changed in the 70-odd years since it was first published. Short, clear and perfect.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
YES
YES!! I was so surprised The Secret History didn’t make the list
The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont and Old School by Tobias Wolfe were 2 that I enjoyed. And of course The Secret History.
THE SWALLOWS by Lisa Lutz, a great war-of-the-sexes novel set at a New England boarding school. It came out late last summer and never got the attention it deserved.
Completely agree! The Swallows is superb, an A+!
I think I’ve shared these with you before, but I’m a big fan of Paper Covers Rock (very much like A Separate Peace) and The Tragedy Papers.
I can’t recommend the novel Skippy Dies by Paul Murray enough. Seabrook College feels like a character itself by the end of it. It’s very funny and very, very dark, so just be forewarned. But the way Murray writes is beautiful.
The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom (editor to many of the great children’s book authors of the 20th century) is a delight. And how about The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson?
Seconded: “The Secret Language” was one of my favorite books when I was a child!
Thanks for the list! I now need to make a trip to the library – YES! I have 2 favorite boarding school book series. The first one is the Shades of London 4-book series by Maureen Johnson (The Name of the Star, The Madness Underneath, The Shadow Cabinet, & The Boy in the Smoke) & the Stalking Jack the Ripper series by Kerri Maniscalco. (Okay, it’s really not a boarding school series. It’s in book #2, Hunting Prince Dracula, that Audrey Rose & Thomas go to Romania to attend one of the best forensic schools in Europe. So they do go to live at a school in a different country. That counts, right? LOL!)
I just abandoned Catherine House, because I simply could not get into it, no matter how much I wanted to. It was not as interesting as it sounded, by a long shot. I recommend Etiquette and Espionage series by Gail Carriger. It’s the first book in the Finishing School series. YA. Young 19th century woman in a steampunk England keeps getting into trouble and thrown out of boarding schools – until her parents send her off to Madame Geraldine’s Finishing School for Young Ladies of Quality. Unknown to her desperate parents, the school is on a dirigible and the young ladies are taught to be spies.
I was going to recommend Etiquette and Espionage, too, probably for an older teen. Fun series. Another one is the Merits of Mischief, kids in a Correctional Facility that rewards bad behavior. It sounds weird but is a lot of fun. And of course there is Harry Potter! A favorite I had growing up was Daddy Long Legs, sweet epistolary tale.
I also loved the Etiquette and Espionage series! I don’t often enjoy YA books, but these are so delightfully funny they made the cut.
My favorites (some of these just have parts that take place in a boarding school)
A Little Princess
Anne of the Island & Daddy Long Legs (I know these are technically University, but the boarding is a big part of the novel and I love it so much!)
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
Summerhills by D.E. Stevenson (from the perspective of creating a boarding school)
The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
(Harry Potter of course)
Catcher in the Rye
Jane Eyre
David Copperfield
Your comment makes me want to find my copy of Daddy Long Legs. A comfort read would be a good thing this weekend.
Yes! That was the first boarding school novel I thought of! I read it many years ago. Time for a reread!
Yes, love the Princess Academy! So good!
This is a great list! Other boarding school novels which are excellent are Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld and The Old Lovegood Girls by Gail Godwin.
Well Schooled in Murder by Elizabeth George is set in a swanky boarding school. I also loved the Mallory Towers and St Claire school series by Enid Blyton. They have made Mallory Towers into a TV series too! A bit cheezy but I still love them.
How about the English TV series HEX in a boarding school with a fallen angel and a witch! Sort of an adult Harry Potter school.
Loved, loved, loved, the YA series, Private by Kate Brian! Great for fans of Gossip Girl, the Clique, or Pretty Little Liars.
I am still traumatized from having to read A Separate Peace in high school. Worst book ever! The Frankie Landau-Banks one is good, though, and I’m intrigued by many others.
You’re not alone with your high school feelings about A Separate Peace! I wondered then, as I wonder now, how is it considered classic literature?
Ha! Me, too. I didn’t like the book or the weeks we spent discussing/dissecting it. Same with The Pearl (Steinbeck?). My copy was filled with multicolored underlined passages (each color stood for different literary things). We killed both of those books.
I also loved Picnic at Hanging Rock. I’m surprised Agatha Christie’s boarding school who-dun-it is not on the list – ‘Cat amongst the Pigeons’.
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Russell is brilliant, riveting and challenging. Prep by Curtis Sitttenfeld.
Catcher and the Rye and Infinite Jest would be great additions to this list. My favorite book of all time is A Prayer For Owen Meany
Growing up, one of my very favorite books was Apples Every Day by Grace Richardson. I reread it often.
Now, my grandkids enjoy The Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter. I read them too. They’re set at a girls’ boarding school that trains them to be spies. Very fun!
I loved The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
I really liked Moral Compass by Danielle Steel.
You can’t leave Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton or To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield off this list! I’m always on the lookout for a good boarding school book because my husband taught at an East Coast boarding school for 38 years, including 21 years as a dorm supervisor. I should have written things down as they happened then I could have written a book myself.
I love “The Secret History” and “Special Topics in Calamity Physics” (which is an obvious nod to “The Secret History”). And, I’d be remiss not to mention Harry Potter!
Though set many years later, I’d argue that The Guest List (Lucy Foley) has serious boarding school throwback vibes. And, of course, the classic all-encompassing college campus novel: The Secret History.
Just read The Guest List. Boys boarding schools are so scary… Survival Club,
really….
These are considered “juvenile”- but I really enjoyed them both. The Harry Potter series! and The Dragonfly Pool…
I was just going to say Harry Potter. And because of the audiobook comments from a few posts back, I listened to Jim Vale and was completely enthralled. I can’t wait to listen to them all.
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James is a eerie, atmospheric mystery novel with an all-girls school setting. I enjoyed this novel!
I LOVE reading a boarding school book every fall. One Madeline L’Engle wrote one at the start of her writing career called, “And Both Were Young”. It’s based on her own boarding school experiences and takes place right after World War 2. Made me want to read more of her other lesser known books!
I can’t believe Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld did not make the list…great story and characters.
I thought the same thing! Prep is my absolute favorite!
I absolutely loved Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
When I was a kid, I loved Malory Towers and The Twins at St Clare’s by Enid Blyton – my first ever boarding school novels! LOL
Among Others by Jo Walton is an amazing story. Part coming of age, part ode to reading with a little bit of magic thrown in. Like nothing else I have ever read. Won both the Hugo and the Nebula for best novel. If you love books you may love this tale.
As a Boy Mom…loved the Percy Jackson series. They are ‘Camps’ but boarding school-ish.
Two of my all time favorite books fall in this category: Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris and one on your list, A Prayer for Owen Meany. Highly recommend nothing of these!
Highly recommend BOTH of these. Typing too fast!
Bloomability by Sharon Creech – A middle grade novel set at an International school in Switzerland.
Yes, I love Bloomability! It’s one of my favorites!
So glad to see Picnic At Hanging Rock made the cut! 😉 But just the phrase “boarding school novels” always makes me think immediately of the Malory Towers by Enid Blyton – I DEVOURED those as a kid. Unfortunately, they gave me very inflated expectations about what boarding school would *actually* be like…
Two of my favorite girl characters spend time in boarding schools, Flavia de Luce in “As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust” in a school in Toronto, Canada, and Jacky Faber in “The Curse of the Blue Tattoo” where she’s made to give up her wild ways to attend the Lawson Peabody School for Girls in Boston.
And then, isn’t an orphanage a sort of boarding school? How about Cider House Rules? All so sad. To top it off in the missing parents category is the tragedy of My Dark Vanessa.
Truthfully, I don’t usually enjoy boarding school novels, kids are homesick and miserable, boys get bullied, girls get cut, scary things happen, and Where are Mom and Dad when you need them?!
Arcadia Falls, by Carol Goodman. I adore her books and I think a couple of them are set at boarding schools. Her books are atmospheric and have smart female characters.
A Separate Peace triggered my desire to attend a boarding school for my last 2 years of high school! What about Harry Potter? I’m surprised the series didn’t make the list!
This is round about the boarding school topic but the first book that came to
mind was AND THEN THERE WERE NUNS, ADVENTURES IN A CLOISTERED LIFE by Jane
Christmas. I went to a Catholic college with nuns. This answered a lot of
questions and the humor is so correct. A really good read if you were educated
by nuns. Very enjoyable and realistic.
Yes, that’s one with a great twist!
“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” by Muriel Spark is a classic girls boarding school novel. And a classic movie.
I went to boarding school and absolutely loved my experience so I don’t know how I feel about the fact that most of these novels seem to be dark and full of mystery. For a lighter take on the boarding school setting, read “Bloomability” by Sharon Creech. It’s a pretty hopeful book and the location its based in actually exists!
I totally agree! I also went to boarding school and I have such a hard time reading books that take place in a boarding school because they seem so unrealistic. In my school we could not walk wherever we wanted in the middle of the night and go off with whoever we wanted. I feel like boarding schools are much more strict, in a safety for students way, than portrayed in books.
Black Ice (Lorene Cary) is a memoir, not a novel, but definitely worth a read.
Life With Mother Superior, by Jane Trahey
Never Let Me Go is still on my “top ten of all time” list. I would add a book I’m still in the middle of: Abigail by Magda Szabo. My kids’ pediatrician recommended this author to me and she’s fantastic. Her novel The Door blew me away.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is such a classic! Almost all Australian kids read it when they are at school. Audiobook is so atmospheric as well.
I love Looking for Alaska by John Green and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
gotta have Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld and the World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton!
I love Tana French and I think I’ve read all of her books. However, The Secret Place, was my least favorite of hers. I thought the teenage girls were whiny and the plot got into mysticism/fantasy, not a favorite genre of mine (Sorry, Anne!). Like others have commented, I read A Separate Piece, in high school and remembering liking it so I need to revisit that one at some time.