Book picks similar to
Runaway by Norma Charles


school-stories
canadian-children
catholic-children
childrens-fiction

Two Chalet School Girls in India


Priyadarshini Narendra - 2006
    The Robin is also in need of a break, after losing her father earlier in the year. The visit will change their lives forever, and the friendships they make will have long-lasting repercussions. This is the book that Chalet School fans across the world have been waiting for. Elinor M. Brent-Dyer’s story of what happened when Joey Bettany and the Robin visited India was never published, and no trace of it remains. Readers seemed destined never to know the answers to questions ranging from how did Joey meet Erica Standish’s mother, to why Joey tore out the pictures from Mollie’s copy of Queechy? Now Priyadarshini Narendra has written her own version of the story, remaining as true to the Chalet School series as possible. Priyadarshini lives near Delhi, and has been a Chalet School collector since the age of six.With a foreword by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer’s biographer, Helen McClelland, explaining the history of the original book.

The Chalet School and Rosalie


Elinor M. Brent-Dyer - 1951
    Rosalie wants desperately Tom Gay to be her best friend. Both are Middles, in the Upper Third. Tom was asked to look after her on the train journey to school, but doesn't really know how to have a relationship with another girl ... particularly one who has such an opposite personality from her own. Rosalie wants to do whatever Tom is doing. For example, despite being a fair tennis player and never having played cricket, she signs up for extra cricket lessons because Tom does. When told that she was being switched back to Tennis, she gets in the first of several rows.

Viking at School


Jeremy Strong - 1998
    He lives with his friends the Ellis family in a seaside hotel and constantly causes chaos. When Tim and Zoe Ellis take him to school with them a series of seriously funny disasters results.

Climbing a Monkey Puzzle Tree


Karen Wallace - 2002
    She's rolled up from the backwoods of Canada, eager for a new life brimming with adventure. But boarding school isn't the fantasy that Nancy had imagined. It is an austere, loveless world where budding relationships are soon put to the test. Nancy wins friends and finds solace by telling stories, but still feels horribly alone inside. And when she leads her dorm in a special fund-raising event that goes tragically wrong, things go from bad to worse. Nancy longs to meet the glamorous brother of her friend, Caroline, and as her troubles build it's an encounter that can't come soon enough—until a shocking revelation comes to light.

The Big Switch


David Warner - 2014
    He lives in Sandhill Flats with his mum and dad and his brother Steve – and his stinky dog Max. Davey and his schoolmates – even Max – are MAD for cricket. All they want to do is play … but there’s always something getting in their way.In this first book in the series, Davey and his friends have a big game coming up against Shimmer Bay, their arch rivals in the local comp. They need to practise, and spend all their free time at school – in the morning and at lunchtime – making sure they’ll be ready.But disaster strikes. Davey and his friends find out their new teacher is Mr Mudge, a strict grump who HATES cricket even more than he hates Year 6 boys, and thanks to bully Mo Clouter, they find themselves on detention. Which means no cricket.The boys are desperate. They’re going to need to pull something special out of the bag to win against Shimmer Bay. Davey’s mates have some ideas, one that could really get them into trouble, but it means getting around Mo, who seems to be everywhere they turn.But Davey has an idea that he thinks may just work … he just needs to practise. Will he pull it off in time for the game against Shimmer Bay?

Eat Your Dinner, Becky Sue


Kimberly Bennet
    With simple, rhyming text and fun, adorable illustrations; the first of the Little Sue Series begins.

Tunnels of Time: A Moose Jaw Adventure


Mary Harelkin Bishop - 2000
    She's going to miss a really cool bike trip and she's not taking it very well.At a family dinner party in a local restaurant, Andrea agrees to look at what she thinks is just a phony tourist attraction: the tunnels beneath the streets of Moose Jaw. Legend has it that in Prohibition days the tunnels sheltered crooks, maybe even the notorious Al Capone! Andrea scoffs, until she has a small accident at the tunnel entrance and wakes up in another time.Unable to return to the present, Andrea is caught up in a dangerous underground adventure. A teenage boy, Vance, finds her a job: working as a courier for the very criminals whose existence she dismissed - including their menacing leader, a man she knows only as Scarface. When she overhears information about a police raid, Andrea has to decide what to do. Should she help Scarface escape? Or should she help Vance, running for his life after a run-in with Scarface? And whatever she decides, will Andrea ever get back to the present?

Prelude


Madeleine L'Engle - 1968
    As she learns how to accept the conflicts of her unorthodox home life and then her fellow students in a boarding school in Switzerland, we follow Katherine through all the torment, loneliness, and adorations and passions of a fifteen-year-old girl as she tries to realize her ambitions in the tumultuous world of the arts and make her own way to maturity.

The Naughtiest Girl In The School & The Naughtiest Girl Again


Enid Blyton - 2007
    

Visitors for the Chalet School


Helen McClelland - 1995
    Brent-Dyer's own titles, but a new story written by the president of The New Chalet Club, following notes left by Brent-Dyer. Patricia Davidson hopes to train as a doctor but is prevented from realising her ambition by her possessive mother. Luckily, on a school trip to the Austrian Tyrol, Patricia meets Joey Bettany and other members of the Chalet School and is guided by them to find a way of convincing her mother of her future plans. Interspersed with a dramatic accident and typical practical jokes by the Middles, and with all of the Brent-Dyer pace and style, this is a book in the true Chalet School tradition.

Ghost Messages


Jacqueline Guest - 2011
    On the journey, Ailish gets help from a young boy, Davy, who seems to live belowdecks. She makes friends with an Irish sailor and tries to track down the hiding place of her father's treasure. The crew must battle the seas and the mishaps of their cable-laying mission, some of which would appear to be sabotage. Through many adventures, Davy is her constant companion. But why won't he ever come topside? Can Ailish use her wits, her determination and her friendships to survive the trip, let alone save the day?

The Nicest Girl in the School


Angela Brazil - 1909
    Patty Hirst was no great scholar, but she was the "nicest girl" at Morton Priory, and a gifted artist as well.

The Daring Game


Kit Pearson - 1986
    But a bond begins to develop between Eliza and Helen, a mischievous, unpopular girl who defies authority, plays practical jokes and doesn't seem to care what others think of her. It is Helen who starts the daring game among the first girls in the Yellow Dorm.

First Term at Silver Spires


Ann Bryant - 2008
    Everything would be fine if it weren't for one girl who's always mean. Katy knows that if she told her secret, everything would be fine - but Katy is determined not to tell anybody.

The Fruit Bowl Project


Sarah Durkee - 2006
    The kids in 8th Grade Writer's Workshop are awestruck when their teacher announces that through her husband's cousin, she's met rock superstar Nick Thompson and has invited him to their class. He's come to talk about writing and he's even cooler than they imagined. Nick, known for his music as well as his lyrics, tells the kids his secret: A song is just a bowl of fruit-one must figure out how to paint it. Words are to a writer what paint is to a painter. How many ways can one arrange the fruit? An infinite number. There's style, voice, genre, and much more to consider. Nick gives the kids two weeks to complete the assignment using seven seemingly ordinary elements. Each student must tell an interesting story, reflecting his or her style. And so "The Fruit Bowl Project" begins. Rap, poetry, monologue, screenplay, haiku, fairy tale-and more.