American Girls Educated Abroad

So my original interest for Stranger in a Strange Land was to find the kid lit equivalent of the American Lawrence of Arabia story, which, because of the breadth of experience, lends itself better to the novel format than the picture book format. I was looking for the arc where the mainstream American travels abroad and must confront their own American identity while immersed in a foreign culture.

Blow out the Moon by Libby Koponen showed up during my research, too, and not just because Libby is a Blue Rose Girl. Based on the author's own experiences in a London Boarding school, this book stars a spunky American girl who initially struggles with the English culture but eventually adapts and learns proper English etiquette and how to ride a horse. Great photos of actual letters, book illustrations, and objects of the author's childhood related to the trip add another layer of depth to the story. My personal favorite aspect of the novel is how the girl Libby is steeped in children's literary references. For example, when she first learns how to ride a horse, she keeps bringing up Black Beauty. She falls in love with the archness of Pride and Prejudice, and she has a discussion with her British friend about which character she would be in Little Women.

The other example I want to highlight is Bloomability by Sharon Creech. After her sixteen year old sister became pregnant and her older brother was jailed, Domenica aka "Dinnie" is "kidnapped" with her mother's encouragement to go the Switzerland boarding school run by her uncle and aunt. Though her family tells her it's a wonderful opportunity, a homesick Dinnie's struggles to learn how to speak Italian with a smattering of Japanese and how to ski. After growing through her lessons and friendships with students from Spain, Japan and America, Dinnie leaves Switzerland with a strong sense of hope and seeing bloomabilities wherever she goes. Also, because Dinnie discovers her grandmother came from Italy while learning Italian at boarding school, this story also has an element of finding one's cultural heritage, which aids in her discovery of self.

Thanks to Charlotte and Alvina for their comments. I'm in the middle of reading (in the name of research, of course) all your wonderful suggestions. Interesting how the protagonists are sent to boarding school against their will. Why are they all going to boarding school? One answer would be that the authors themselves have experienced attending boarding schools and are simply writing what they know. Addressing it on a story level, I think for the child protagonist to really come into her own and truly face the otherness of a foreign culture and herself, she must experience the country without the safety buffer of her parents. A boarding school is a great setting that gives the child a daily structure, an social structure and protection without parents. Charlotte of Charlotte's Library wrote a great post about American girls at English boarding schools.

Most of these stories have girl protagonists. I wonder if there are any Stranger in a Strange Land stories starring boys? Are boys not sent to boarding schools abroad? Do boys not travel to other countries in a realistic setting? There must be something out there.

My next post: novels about ethnic American children (again all girls!) traveling and finding their cultural roots. I'm seriously looking for an American boy journeying for cultural heritage.