THE SCHOOL OF GOOD AND EVIL 
by Soman Chainani and illustrated by Iacopo Bruno

• Series: School for Good and Evil Series #1
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Published: 4/15/2014
• Genre: Children – Fiction & Literature
• ISBN-13: 9780062104908

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.

But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are?

Available from Amazon and B&N

A MON REVIEW

I love fairy tales. Who doesn’t, amiright? I especially love the books that twist everything you know and love about fairy tales and make you question what you thought you knew about them. The School of Good and Evil does just that.

Agatha and Sophie are girls you’ve gone to school with or maybe you are one of these girls. One who seems perfect in every way and the other that’s not so much. At the beginning of the book I found myself asking, why these two girls are friends? Agatha is shy and is happiest in her cemetery with her cat. While Sophie, thrives in the spotlight. Making sure people see how good she is. These girls are totally what you stereotypically expect from a princess and a witch until you get to know them. Within the first couple of chapters I could see why Sophie got sent to the Evil school, and Agatha to Good.

Poor Agatha gets picked on when she first meets the princesses and gets so nervous she farts. Which if you ask me is an excellent response to all the sneers and jabs.

The book has some hilarious parts, apart from the farting. I relished watching the friendship between Sophie and Agatha grow and deteriorate only to grow again. It’s a beautiful thing. A lot of the time it seemed like the friendship is more one sided than anything but Sophie really does love Agatha, in her own twisted way. Watching these two grow and find themselves was something we can all relate to. No, seriously. What’s more beautiful than a young girl embracing her destiny at such a young age? Nothing, that’s what.

Before you say “But Mon, they’re kids. What do they know about destiny?” Well fellow bookie, don’t you remember what it’s like being that age? Where everything feels bigger than it is? That awful pre-teen stage right before the whole world is against you. To me, this is what this story is about. But with fairy tales.

Agatha is my favorite character in this book and no one will be able to convince me otherwise. I liked Dot too (she’s one of the Evil students, she can turn anything into chocolate. Need I say more?). Aggie is such an honest human being. My heart clenches thinking back at what she had to go through while unknowingly proving she is an Ever.

There is so much that I could talk about for this book but then I’ll go over my word limit. Just kidding, Dee doesn’t give me a word limit. (Dee: I really don’t, she talks a lot. That’s why I am obviously editing her rambles lol)

I give this book a 4 Tacos in the Taco Scale of Awesome. I know this is a kids book, okay. I know this, but give it a chance. If you need to escape to the grown up world pick this book up. It has everything, mystery, a love story (not necessarily that of a boy and girl and not necessarily a romantic love story. Spoilers.) And it prove that the power of friendship can triumph over everything. The only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars is because there is some parts towards the end where I wish Agatha had been as bad ass as she had been while helping Sophie go up the evil ladder. There’s also a bunch of stereotypical gender role stuff that I don’t like but was able to look over because I loved the story.

Until next time time. Mon, over and out.