The School of Possibilities by Seita Parkkola

Cover image/summary taken from Sourcebook's website:

Storm Steele is an impossible child.

Or so his parents believe thanks to the influence of his evil “step-monster.” Now Storm is being forced to attend the School of Possibilities for troubled youth. But Storm notices that something strange is going on at his new school. The students are not…normal.

Soon he’s being spied on, followed by classmates—and worst of all, forced to accept the headmaster’s perfectly behaved daughter as his girlfriend. He can feel himself becoming more obedient, more like his classmates. Storm tries to resist, but he doesn’t understand how or why the school is controlling him.

Can Storm escape—or will he be turned into a zombie of “good” behavior like everyone else around him?

Review:

When I first received this book, I wasn't too sure what to expect, because as I've said numerous times before, when it comes to Sourcebooks' books and me it's usually a huge hit or huge miss. Luckily The School of Possibilities was the former of those two.

To me, The School of Possibilities is a great crossover between middle-grade and the younger spectrum of YA. Since it's funny, has great world building, as well as thoroughly developed and likable characters, and a minuscule amount of romance, while still containing innocence that's usually not associated with older YA.

Storm is considered an impossible child because of his craving to skate-board or to 'fly', in his words, and get in light, venial trouble with friends every once in a while. Though, one day his actions go too far, and he's sent to The School of Possibilities, a school whose main determination is to make the impossible children be impossible no more.

I took a liking to Storm from the start, since he was a boy that I couldn't help but want to jump in the story and help rid his world of the crazies involved with School of Possibilities. Though, I didn't like him nearly as much as I liked India, the leader of the runaway impossible children. She was quite bluntly kick-butt; I enjoyed seeing how she would always be there for Storm and the others, as well as seeing more of the past she tried so hard to make non-existent. Also, I have to add that Miss Poole was nearly the perfect villain, since you simply can't help but love to hate this dreadful woman.

One of my favorite parts of this was the world of The School of Possibilities. It was extremely interesting to see how everything worked, as well as see just how full of corruption this school was. And when mixed with the plot events, this was one story that proved to be un-put-a-down-able.

Though, as with any book out there, I did have problems with The School of Possibilities, but it mainly had to do with the fact that I'm well past the intended age group for this one, so I won't go into too much depth with that.

In all, The School of Possibilities was interesting and well-done, one book that I highly suggest middle-grade set, as well as the younger spectrum of the YA age group, pick up because I'm sure they'll love it, especially the boys.

Grade: B-

The School of Possibilities is now out!

Souce: Publicist at Sourcebooks. Thanks Kay!