Riot Recommendation

39+ of Your Favorite School Novels

María Cristina García lives in New York with her favorite spouse, her favorite toddler, her favorite cat, and her second-favorite cat. When not ranking members of her household, she's catching up on Supergirl, strumming her mandolin, or trying to beat the clock on her library loans. Twitter: @MeowyCristina Blog: MeowyCristina.com

This Riot Recommendation of best school novels is sponsored by School for Psychics by K. C. Archer.

School for Psychics is the first book in a new series starring a young woman with extraordinary abilities who must decide whether she will use her skills for good—or not.

Teddy Cannon isn’t your typical twenty-something woman. She’s resourceful, bright, scrappy. She’s also psychic. After a series of bad decisions and a run-in with the police, she finds herself at an elite facility where students are trained to use their skills to protect America, and the world.

But just as Teddy feels like she’s found where she belongs, a dangerous mission causes her to question everything…


Hello, recovering doctoral student here. I would not go back to being a student for all the money in the world. Wait, that’s really hyperbolic. Let me interrogate that feeling…Yep. Totally accurate. But! I do like to read about fictional school experiences. All the angst and triumphs with none of the homework or tuition. I asked for your favorite school novels, and you turned in some great picks!

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton

To Serve Them All My Days by R. F. Delderfield

Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen

Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Villette by Charlotte Brontë

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand

The Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Just Patty by Jean Webster

The Secrets of Flight by Maggie Leffler

The Trebizon series by Anne Digby

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

The Daring Game by Kit Pearson

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Old School by Tobias Wolff

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer

Lucie Babbidge’s House by Sylvia Cassedy

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

The Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal

The Chalet School series by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

Making Tracks by Scott G. Gibson

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman

Christy by Catherine Marshall

I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven

The Zucchini Warriors by Gordon Korman