Fiction About Private School Life

Perhaps parents and young people going through the private school admissions process shouldn't start with it, but you have to read or re-read J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye sometime. After digesting that American classic, then contrast it with Madeleine L'Engle's And Both Were Young. Girls in particular will especially enjoy this book.

Fiction set in private schools is precisely that. Fiction. It does, however, help teenagers realize that they aren't alone and that others have been through similar experiences before them.

In this vein the Riding Academy series of titles by Alison Hart makes brisk reading and is aimed at the age-group in question. Also try Christie and Company by Katherine Page Hall.

Additional young people's titles include:

• Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
• Deadly Crimesby David Belbin
• The Harry Potter Seriesby J.K. Rowling
• Missing the Pianoby Adam Rapp
• School for Terrorby Peter Beere