The theme of "Out of School" is set in the future, where the government brings new, harsher truancy laws into force. It's main character, fifteen-year-old Nyka Haversham, is being treated for anxiety and has a phobia of school, which she constantly skips to avoid being bullied. Consequently, a school attendance officer pays a visit to her house, and she ends up in court, leading to a sentence in juvenile prison which changes her forever. The intended audience would be young adults, and its plot in comparison with "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess, "Nineteen Eighty Four" by George Orwell, and "The Guardians" by John Christopher, because of the corrective measures it involves. I would sell "Out of School" to a publisher by reminding them of the yob culture endemic of Britain, and of how - like a victim of rape - a victim of severe school bullying can be damaged for life.
The book is aimed at young adults and those in their mid-teens, and carries the message that more should be done to tackle the subject of school bullying. Teachers are frightened of stepping in because they are frightened of rough, anti-social schoolboys who may carry weapons, and who could assault them in turn if they try to defend the bullied victim.
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