When the Ground Is Hard

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4 stars (1 review)

Adele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester at school is going to be great with her best friend Delia at her side. Then Delia dumps her for a new girl with more money, and Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn't pray and defies teachers' orders. But as they share a copy of Jane Eyre, Lottie's gruff exterior and honesty grow on Adele, and Lottie learns to be a little sweeter. Together, they take on bullies and protect each other from the vindictive and prejudiced teachers. Then a boy goes missing on campus and Adele and Lottie must rely on each other to solve the mystery and maybe learn the true meaning of friendship.

2 editions

This one took me by surprise.

4 stars

Adele has held one of the coveted popular rich school spots in her school circle. Until she is suddenly kicked out and replaced with someone else. She winds up bunking with one of the poor girls in a creepy dorm that has been reported to be haunted.

She has a hard time adjusting to her lower status and focuses on how to get it back over adjusting to her new roommate. This was a girl that Adele would have bullied and talked bad about with her old group. And her mom has always been telling her that she should be nice to the poor girls, but she never explains why.

This is a lovely book about someone being thrown from grace and coming to terms with how nasty of a person you have to be to keep that status. Adele grows a lot and for being a YA book, there's …

Subjects

  • Children's fiction
  • Racially mixed people, fiction
  • Boarding schools, fiction
  • Schools, fiction
  • Popularity, fiction
  • Africa, fiction