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Tag: Boarding school

  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

    Harry Potter has grown up neglected by his aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs in suburban Surrey. On his eleventh birthday a giant named Hagrid tells him the truth: his parents were a witch and wizard, killed by the dark wizard Voldemort, and Harry is famous in the magical world for surviving the attack as a baby.

    Harry enters Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, travelling from a hidden platform at King's Cross. He befriends Ron Weasley and the brilliant, rule-abiding Hermione Granger, discovers a talent for the airborne sport Quidditch, clashes with the snobbish Draco Malfoy and the cold Professor Snape, and starts to suspect that something valuable is being guarded inside the castle.

    Rowling combines a boarding-school story with a richly imagined hidden world of wands, houses, ghosts and magical creatures. The book was rejected by several publishers before Bloomsbury accepted it, then launched a seven-book series that became a worldwide phenomenon. It was published in the US as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

    Book details

    AuthorJ. K. Rowling
    First published1997
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreFantasy
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)223
    SettingSurrey and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland
    AwardsNestle Smarties Book Prize 1997

    Themes

    • Friendship
    • Belonging
    • Courage
    • Good versus evil
    • Orphanhood

    Who should read it

    Young readers starting out with fantasy and adults who want to see where the phenomenon began.

  • Never Let Me Go

    Kathy H., now in her early thirties and working as a carer, recalls growing up at Hailsham, an apparently idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. The students are encouraged to make art and poetry, guarded closely by their teachers, called guardians, and told very little about the outside world or why they are there.

    Her memories centre on two friends: Ruth, bossy and eager to belong, and Tommy, a boy prone to rages who struggles with art. The three form a lasting triangle of affection and rivalry that carries on after they leave Hailsham for a run-down farm called the Cottages, and as adults they piece together the truth about their own purpose.

    Ishiguro reveals his premise gradually, through Kathy's calm, matter-of-fact narration, which makes the book's speculative element more unsettling rather than less. It is less a story about science than about how people accept the lives they are given, and about memory, love and mortality. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and adapted into a 2010 film.

    Book details

    AuthorKazuo Ishiguro
    First published2005
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)288
    SettingHailsham boarding school and rural England, late 20th century

    Themes

    • Mortality
    • Friendship
    • Acceptance
    • Memory
    • What makes us human

    Who should read it

    Readers who like quietly devastating literary fiction with a speculative edge.