It seems to me that, at least in the movies, there are a lot more hijinks in boarding schools. Maybe being with the same people all the time lends itself to roguery. I could be wrong. But the five books that I’m going to share with you today contain a fair amount of mischief.

First up is the Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, who is in her second year of boarding school, but in her first year without her sister there. She’s upset that the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, a not-so-secret secret society kind of like the Skulls or the Life & Death Brigade, is boys only. So naturally, she takes over and gets everyone in trouble.

It was the pranks that got her in trouble. And pranks are fun. Just ask the characters from Culver Creek in Looking for Alaska by John Green. This is the kind of book that will make you both laugh and cry. It’s great. And I have it on good authority that the prank that main character Pudge and his friends commit at the end of the book is similar to something that Green and his friends pulled off when they were in high school.

If you’ve already read Looking for Alaska, you might also like The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth Laban. This one is told in alternating perspectives. Exiting seniors leave presents for the incoming seniors who inherit their dorm rooms. Duncan inherits the room of Tim, who found himself in some trouble the year before. Tim’s present to Duncan was a set of CDs that chronicle the events of the previous year. It also might appeal to fans of 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. That one’s not set in a boarding school.

In The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, one of the boys that Henrietta’s resident psychics see in the graveyard is a boarding school boy. Seeing him in the graveyard means that he’s going to die sometime in the next year. If that’s not weird enough for you, Blue, the female protagonist, isn’t supposed to be able to see him, but she does. And she talks to him. Which means that he could be her true love. Or that she kills him. Or both.

Cassel, from White Cat by Holly Black, is no stranger to killing people. Except that only he and his family know what happened. So he’s in boarding school now and trying to lay low. He seems to do a fairly good job of it until he sleepwalks onto the top of one of the dorms. Did I mention that everyone in his family has powers? Well, except for him.

So that was five books set in boarding schools: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, Looking for Alaska, The Tragedy Paper, The Raven Boys and White Cat.

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