First-chapter Friday : School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani

Each Friday that school is in session, I share the link to a read-aloud preview of a book from SRCSA library. The “First-chapter Friday” selection for Aug. 25, 2023 is The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani.

Every four years, two girls are kidnapped from the village of Gavaldon. Legend has it these lost children are sent to the School for Good and Evil, the fabled institution where they become fairytale heroes or villains. With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she’ll join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White at the School for Good. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black dresses and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil. But 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 this “mistake” is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are?