A Bunch of Cherries: A Story of Cherry Court School
1900
Cherry Court School is a place of old-fashioned discipline and gorgeous cherry gardens, where the annual Cherry Feast is the event every girl awaits. But for Kitty Sharston, the prospect of celebration is shadowed by devastating news: her father is leaving for India, and with his departure comes the terrifying possibility that she can no longer afford to stay at the school she loves. A scholarship competition offers a way forward, but victory means outwitting clever rivals in an atmosphere thick with secrets and petty rivalries. When the competition yields an injustice that threatens to shatter Kitty's future, she must decide whether to fight for what is right, even when the cost seems impossibly high. L.T. Meade was the reigning queen of girls' school stories, and this 1900 novel showcases her gift for weaving genuine emotion into tales of youthful ambition and moral courage. The result is a book that captures the intense friendships and betrayals of adolescence with surprising depth, set against a world of pinafores and parlor lessons that feels both foreign and strangely familiar.
