FernFolio

Thirteen year-old Emmaline Cayley calls herself an aviatrix. She dreams of flying and is determined to build a flying machine! Since the year is 1894 and airplanes have not yet been invented, this is an extraordinary and, some might say, even foolhardy ambition.
Fortunately for Emmaline, she has recently come from India, where her parents live, to stay with her eccentric Aunt Lucy, who delights in madcap schemes, and Aunt Lucy’s Sikh butler, Lal Singh, who seems capable of handling any emergency, even ones involving winged flying apparatuses. When Emmaline meets Robert, also known as Rubberbones because of his extraordinary ability to survive falls off roofs and out of trees without a bruise or broken bone, she realizes that she has found her pilot and so, with the help of her new friends, Emmaline begins to build flying machines!
Just as Emmaline’s flying experiments start to take off, she receives a letter from St. Grimelda’s School for Young Ladies informing her that she is to report for the beginning of the new school term. It seems that her mother, concerned that Emmaline’s behaviour is less than ladylike, has enrolled her in the strictest school in the world.
St Grimelda’s proves to be a dismal, frightening prison of a school. The students are locked behind high stone walls to prevent escape, their letters home are opened and read, and they are encouraged to spy upon their classmates and inform the headmistress, Mrs. Wackett, of any misdeeds. Emmaline is desperate to escape from the school and return to Aunt Lucy’s, but her attempt to sneak past Mrs. Wackett and Mr. Pinchbeak, the gatekeeper, fails spectacularly.
Aunt Lucy begins to suspect that all is not well with her niece when she receives a very stilted letter from Emmaline that says nothing. She and Lal Singh and Rubberbones decide to investigate things at St Grimelda’s, and, when the headmistress refuses to let them see Emmaline, begin to make plans to help her escape.
But St Grimelda’s has a secret, one the school uses to keep its students terrified and obedient. If Emmaline and her friends are going to be successful in freeing her, they will have to confront this ancient and deadly mystery!
Howard Whitehouse’s book is a wonderful adventure about courage, friendship and persistence! Readers from Grade 5 who enjoy fantasy will love this book!
FernFolio Editor