A School for Unusual Girls

A School for Unusual Girls 
by Kathleen Baldwin
New York: For Teen, 2015. 351pgs. Young Adult Fiction

Georgiana Fitzwilliam has never fit in. In her world in the early 1800’s it is not appropriate for girls to have an interest in science or to ask too many questions. After accidentally burning her father’s stables down while conducting an experiment to find a new invisible ink, she is sent to a boarding school where her parents are not to interfere with any of their methods. This school is supposed to turn problem girls into cultured and refined marriageable young women. This school actually is a house that trains girls to fine tune their talents and skill into something that is useful for society, spies.

This was a fun book to read I loved how the author handled the fact that these girls would not have been accepted in society. Most historical fiction almost seems to put it off that if a few more people were willing to try then they would have been able to find a place to fit in when in reality that was not the case. I liked the balance of skill and I also liked that the book pointed out, there are consequences for mistakes. The consequences don’t just impact your life but they have the potential of impacting a lot of other people. The other interesting part of this book is that it plays with the “what if’s” in history. It is not perfectly historically accurate and so, I will be fascinated to see if/how it plays out in the future books.

MH