Pat Ramsey Beckman

Animal Academy Pat Ramsey Beckman

Ten-year-old Maisie didn't want to go to the private girls' school. She was perfectly happy at Country Day, but when she became ill and missed a whole year of school, her mother enrolled her in the dreaded Academy. Maisie's days are filled with woe. She can't even curtsy for the nuns correctly. The girls are not particularly friendly, except perhaps for Dotty, and Maisie's mistakes earn her a reputation of being awkward and not at all one of Mother Friedan's favorites. Even her ability to play the piano does not earn Maisie respect, but doggedly she carries on, playing the piano for Primes, the French honors assembly. While Maisie loves animals, she does not believe people would like to be animals. And when Lydia stomps like a moose, Polly slinks like a panther, and Susan swishes her long hair like a Shetland pony, Maisie gets an idea. However, before she can put her idea into action, animals come for a surprise visit. The events that follow turn Maisie into a ringmaster, and Mother Friedan's girls into circus animals. Maisie becomes popular in spite of a brutish bunch of boarders and a naughty no-nonsense nun when she discovers her own powers and another world on the other side.