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Summary
Summary
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?
Praise for the School of Possibilities
"Parkkola's intellectual, satiric, and poetic writing keeps the narration fresh."
-Kouvolan Sanomat
"Seita Parkkola builds an ambitious, personal work of art and wattaches it to tradition...This novel is not a cliché, not even in its two central ethical attitudes: that families should stick together and that difference is power."
-Parnasso
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-This import explores themes of education, family, freedom, and rebellion through an innovative and entertaining narrative. Labeled "an impossible child" because of his skateboarding and other impulsive behaviors, 12-year-old Storm is sent to the School of Possibilities, where "desperate children learn obedience." The boy soon experiences bizarre methods of discipline that include an assigned best friend who is clearly an enemy and a variety of subtle and overt humiliations from school staff and model students. As Storm's status worsens, he meets India, the enigmatic leader of a small group of homeless "outlaw" kids who oppose the school. Using stealth and graffiti, they challenge the authorities and try to uncover the ominous secret that lies in the school's basement. Storm's wry narration shifts smoothly from humorous irony to fear and desperation, matching the satire and suspense that run simultaneously through the novel. His words and behavior are never predictable, making him an especially engaging protagonist. The evil counselor, also Storm's new stepmother, makes a formidable lead villain, while the robotic students and the boy's frustratingly apathetic parents serve as further threats to his freedom. The strongly developed urban setting has a surrealistic feel, with the looming, sterile school buildings literally and figuratively opposing the dark factory that the outlaws use as their refuge. Black-and-white line drawings neatly reflect the chaos of Storm's world. Foreshadowing occasionally delays forward progress of the plot, but the fine characterizations and palpable atmosphere are dynamic enough to hold interest, and build to a satisfying conclusion.-Steven Engelfried, Wilsonville Public Library, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this inventive, surreal, but somewhat incoherent tale, 12-year-old Storm Steele, a good-hearted but undisciplined boy who has failed at his previous schools, is enrolled by his incompetent father and overbearing stepmother at the experimental School of Possibilities, where strict discipline is the rule. If he fails, he is told, "I will be expelled, and after that, nothing good will be waiting for me in this life." Storm soon runs afoul of a variety of seemingly irrational school regulations. He refuses to take up mandatory hobbies, is uninterested in the girlfriend he has been assigned, and hears rumors of children who have disappeared after failing. This satire about repressive educational methods, vaguely reminiscent of Louis Sachar's Holes, was a bestseller in Parkkola's native Finland. But it is hamstrung by an often awkward and unidiomatic translation ("I waited patiently for the evening meal, and when it arrived, I tried to tell them at the table something vague about my class soccer training and my buddy who was waiting for me in the car park") that makes for halted reading. Ages 9-12. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Also translated by Marja Gass. In this Finnish import, twelve-year-old Storm Steele is sent to the Kafkaesque "School of Possibilities." There he must relinquish his skateboard and endure monitoring by his fellow students as well as by teachers. The novel provides a rousing and intriguingly eerie look at the pressure to conform. Copyright 2010 of The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Storm isn't a bad boy, but he's "not a good one either." Graffiti, skateboarding and forbidden train journeys get him forcibly enrolled at the last-ditch School of Possibilities. There, Storm's life degenerates into increasingly nightmarish, magical-realist twists. His fellow students are excruciatingly obedient, even as they have sports, hobbies and girlfriends assigned as punishments. His parents, a wedding-dress seamstress and a Russian chef, both vanish mysteriously. The only bright spot in Storm's heavily controlled life (he's barricaded into his room nightly) is his friendship with the street children India, Mew, Ra and Moon. Squatting in a derelict biscuit factory, the runaways urge Storm to solve the terrible mystery of The School of Possibilities before it's too late for himor anyone else. Though brief moments will ring problematically for American readers ("She could have been a Native American chief...[or] a bird or some long-extinct human species"), the dark, richly detailed setting of this Finlandia Junior Prize nominee will capture imaginations. Ikonen's illustrations accentuate the surrealist horror as the tale spirals into thriller. (Surrealism. 11-13)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
For Storm Steele, being 12 is worse than being kidnapped by body snatchers. He should only be so lucky. Regarded by his father's new wife as incorrigible, he is enrolled in the nightmarish School of Possibilities, where she is a counselor. Fail there, it is said, and your future will be canceled. Before this can happen, Storm serendipitously meets a mysterious girl named India who may be able to help him recover his freedom. Part dystopian novel and part sinister fairy tale, Finnish author Parkkola's first book explores order-loving adults' attempts to suck the free spirits out of children at any cost. The author's black-and-white expressionistic drawings add an air of eerie unreality to the sometimes slow-paced story, which seems more arbitrary than well imagined. Nevertheless, Storm is an appealing protagonist whose rage against the machine will set readers to thinking about their own possibilities and futures.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2010 Booklist