Sometimes we give small children books about how the lives of kids around the world aren't so different. Their school might look different, we say, but they still go to school. As those kids age, it's important to give them books like this one. Books that lay out reality a little more plainly and show them how some basic things that we take for granted in the west, like clean water and education, are not so accessible in other places. Camlot presents the reader with several cases where groups have had to defy authority to obtain education. Several reasons are presented - sexism, racism, and classism being the primary driving forces. A variety of cultures and time periods are presented as well. A solid choice for a social science collection.

I made it through maybe a third of the book before my ARC expired. A nice enough book, but it didn't grab me. I was familiar with quite a few of the stories already, plus the formatting put me off a little (too much text, not enough pictures based on my expectations). Maybe it reads better as a physical book.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

Heather Camlot's excellent Secret Schools takes the reader to times and places around the world where teachers and students risked death in order to learn. Wide-ranging, balanced and accessible, this book gives digestible snippets of what it was like to be banned from learning because of one's sex, nationality or religion. Each example is short, finely crafted and well-researched. Each includes illustrations. This book is a great choice for reluctant readers, but will also spur avid readers on to their own further reading and research.

Transitioning back into the classroom can be stressful for students and teachers alike. Something that I like to do to get myself back into the groove is to go looking for new books to discover with my students. I downloaded OWL Kids upcoming release, “Secret Schools” and I wasn’t disappointed. I loved this book! Heather Camelot’s “Secret Schools: True Stories of the Determination to Learn,” illustrated by Erin Taniguchi, is such a versatile and timely read. With students around the world having faced so many changes to their schooling during COVID, being able to read about other children’s experiences from the late 19th century to present day is relevant, informative, and often poignant. So many students seem to be struggling with the motivation to participate more fully in the learning experience, with teachers and parents often perplexed on how to motivate children into being excited about learning. Where “Secret Schools” is really effective is in laying out a series of clandestine schools where people had to fight to have an education, due to political, religious, social, and gender restrictions, showing what risks teachers and students faced in pursuing culture and education goals. These stories are a great way to nourish discussion around the purpose of education and the power of knowledge and literacy. Also exploring the nature of spy schools during WWII and the Cold War (Camp X, Soviet Spy Schools), there’s lots of great and engaging information to keep students interested. Well-conceived, this is a great independent read or classroom resource that can support a wide-variety of reading levels!

-Teacher Tips-

*Short 2-page story format is very versatile - either as a read-aloud or as a jigsaw type activity

*Difficult subject matter (Holocaust, Apartheid, Gender discrimination) are dealt with clearly and in an age-appropriate manner

*A great opportunity for discussion around the role of education and its importance in the lives of oppressed peoples - then to make connections as to the importance of education in students’ lives 


*Topic jump to UN Rights of the Child and how many children’s rights to education are undermined or denied

The desire for learning can never be stopped. People have gone to great lengths to learn, and this book gave a good overview of many examples. I really liked the minimal illustrations and colour scheme.

I think of my fifth graders who couldn’t wait for the last day of school. I tried to speak with them about it being a privilege in many places to attend school. This book has great real world examples of the necessity and desire for learning. The book is written for students to understand. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early read.

There have been many reasons to have a secret school, and this book does a good job of covering them. There are schools set up to teach languages, to teach literacy, and to teach culture. And sometimes all three. There are stories of the art that was taught in the Jewish Ghetto during World War II, where the art survived, though the children didn't. There are stories of Black enslaved people who were taught to read and write, and there are stories of schools in South America where the native language of the people was taught to their children, so that their culture would survive.

Well written, with examples of each, and stories of people who went through the schools. Just enough information that you might want to get more information on any one of those school.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

An amazing short, but important book about education. Sometimes we need to be reminded how insanely lucky we are to have access to education, especially with the age a banned books returning. The only negative I have is the omission of Canada's and the US indigenous people. Residential schools that were made to "kill the native save the child" would fit perfectly in this book

What a great book! A couple of the schools I have heard about before but the others I was so intrigued by. Especially the school towards the end of the book that tries to reverse the ideologies that some children have because of their radicalized parents. How fortunate the majority of us are that we didn't have to learn in secret