At the outbreak of World War I, eleven-year-old Elsie Clarke is shipped off to Wales to attend Miss Coleridge’s Academy for Gifted Youths. What at first appears to be an institution for talented academics soon reveals that ‘Gifted’ means something else entirely, and only the mysterious Madam Tryll holds the answers.
Only she can open the Gateway to The Place Where Lost Children Go – a sentient forest called Elsewhere with the power to enhance the talents, desires, and fears of unique souls. And then there’s Elsie, the newest Guardian, with the power to open the Gateways into Elsewhere, borrow Gifts in emergencies, and enhance other Gifts with her touch so that her Gifted friends can grow stronger. But Elsie’s powers are unpredictable and her new role as mentor comes with a lot of responsibility.
Meanwhile, the war rages on, and the headmistress believes the students are the solution. She intends to push them to their academic limit, training them in the art of war, stripping them of their childhood. The Gifted must use their newfound talents to bring down her awful regime and win a battle of their own. But with the war growing ever closer to home, Elsie can’t help but feel like Elsewhere has been recruiting them too, training them for something bigger than just school.
Elsie Clark lives in London with her parents, and it’s the start of WW1. When a mysterious letter arrives asking her to join Miss Coleridge Academy for Gifted Youths in Wales, her parents think it’s a great idea and that it will keep her safe.
Elsie often speaks without thinking, and she soon puts her new roommates offside. She also quickly discovers that some students have special powers, and that Madam Tryll, her favourite teacher, is the only one who can nurture these special powers.
Elsie knows that she is smart, but she soon learns that she is also a Guardian, just like Madam Tryll. Only these two can open a gateway to a magical forest called Elsewhere, a place where the students can practice their special talents. Elsie must learn how her own power works, and how to make friends, as well as helping her new friends to understand their powers too.
As the students struggle with all their new studies, their headmistress decides that as they are the smartest students in Britain they will help win the war, and so she begins training them in warfare. School suddenly becomes a horrible and awful place to be. Can Elsie and her friends use their special powers to change the headmistress’s mind, and make school fun again?
This is a great fantasy novel set around the beginning of WW1, so it has an historical element as well. The students are from all different cultures and this is woven through the story as they all struggle with the impact of the war, and how to deal with each other. It centres around friendship, as the kids learn to live together in a boarding school, and have to learn who they can trust. This is a fast-paced and enjoyable story with a couple of darker scenes, along with all the fun the students have testing out their new powers. Best suited to lower secondary readers who enjoy fantasy and history.