Ribblestrop
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
When your school’s motto is “Life is dangerous,” you know that anything can happen—and everything does!
This raucous tale of education gone awry is “rollicking, ridiculous, and captivating,” according a Bulletin starred review. There’s no school that’s quite like Ribblestrop, complete with roofless dormitories, distracted teachers, and a perilous underground labyrinth. And then there are the students! You’ll meet Sanchez, a Colombian gangster’s son hiding from kidnappers; Millie, an outcast arsonist and self-confessed wild child; Caspar, the landlady’s spoiled grandson; the helpful but hapless Sam and his best friend Ruskin, plus a handful of orphans from overseas who are just happy to have beds—even if they are located in the roofless part of the building. With the “crazy-school appeal of Hogwarts and the grim humor of Lemony Snicket” (The Independent), Ribblestrop, which was awarded the Children’s Fiction Prize by The Guardian, is sure to delight the most mischievous among us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After students arrive at Ribblestrop, they quickly learn that this boarding school is no Hogwarts: it's collapsing and partially burned out, and most of their classmates turn out to be Himalayan orphans. When tough 12-year-old Millie, the only girl at the school, gets lost in WWII-era tunnels running underneath Ribblestrop, she discovers mysterious and frightening experiments taking place. The students work together to rebuild the school while figuring out what is happening in the tunnels. Strange characters including incoming student Sam, who suffers a torrent of injuries, and a vile new headmistress issuing endless rules make for some outrageous scenes, but there are also truly terrifying moments, as when Millie finally understands what scientists are trying to achieve (and upon whom they are experimenting). These stand in stark contrast to the anything-goes silliness that runs through the novel; additionally, the orphans can come across like caricatures, and mostly remain part of the backdrop, not protagonists. Despite these tonal inconsistencies, this clever novel, published in 2009 in the U.K., is as unusual as Ribblestrop itself. Ages 8 12.
