The Luckiest Girl in the School

When war strips the Woodward family of their comfortable life, fifteen-year-old Winona faces a choice: retreat from the world or fight her way forward. Her mother proposes the unthinkable, Winona might win a scholarship to Seaton High School, living with her formidable Aunt Harriet while she studies. The entrance exam is brutal. The social terrain is treacherous. But Winona has never been a girl who shrinks from a challenge. Angela Brazil, the queen of girls' school stories, delivers exactly what her readers craved in 1916: a heroine with teeth. Winona is no passive victim of circumstance. She's ambitious, prickly, and determined to earn her place among girls who've never had to wonder where their next meal comes from. The war backdrop adds weight, the world is changing, and so must the girls within it. This is a story about proving yourself in a world that doubts you, and doing it with spirit. For readers who loved Enid Blyton's school stories, or anyone who wants to see a girl refuse to be diminished. A period piece, yes, but one with genuine fire in its belly.