Madeleine Rosca.  Hollow Fields, Volume 1.  Seven Seas Entertainment, 2007.  192 pages.  Age 9 to 14.

Lucy Snow gets to take cross-species transplantation, grave robbing, and basic killer robot construction in a single semester.  Sound lucky?  It’s just the standard fifth grade curriculum at Hollow Fields, a steampunk boarding school for the “scientifically gifted and ethically unfettered.”

Lucy was meant to go to a different boarding school, but ends up at Hollow Fields due to events of the it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night variety.  Lured in by promises of free tuition and a private bath, she thoughtlessly signs a contract that prohibits her from leaving school property until she graduates.  Thanks to Simon, the only friendly face among her peers, she learns that everyone at Hollow Fields “comes from families involved in the forbidden sciences” such as “biological warfare, unethical genetics, creation of giant transforming robot weaponry” and the likes.

Simon also offers an explanation of the faculty’s highly visible seams:  “Some kids say they’re so old that their bodies have started to fall apart…so they have to keep stitching themselves back up…”  In particular, Miss Weaver, who runs the school, looks like she suffered an augmentation performed by a hack.  As if they weren’t scary enough, there’s another reason not to get too close—they’re venting steam out of their backs.  There is one fully-living creature among them.  His name is Stinch, and he was created by Miss Weaver as a pet and/or security guard.  He resembles Oogie Boogie (from The Nightmare before Christmas) down to the demeanor, except Stinch sports a stylin’ mohawk.

Things change for Lucy after Simon is punished for bad grades and gets hauled off for “detention,” which is some sort of euphemism, but no one knows what for.  One student per week is given this punishment, taken to the windmill, and never heard from again.  Duhn-duhn-duhnnnn.  Already behind in her studies, Lucy will be working her tuches off to stay alive, but she’s also motivated to learn more about the inner workings of Hollow Fields, especially after losing her only almost-friend.  I am betting in future installments (two of which have already been published) she’ll be unraveling some highly intriguing mysteries.  I absolutely loved this, and can’t wait to read the rest.

The first three chapters of volume 1 are available online.  The art is better in the print copies, but go read it anyway.

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