The Midwatch

The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls is a fabulous middle grade adventure with tons of girl power!
It reminded me a lot of the YA novel Etiquette & Espionage from the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger, but for the younger set.
I've always loved books about plucky young girls who start out in dire straits, but eventually succeed. In this novel, you get a gaggle of girls who get sent to a unique orphanage. Their experience there is unexpected, unconventional and not what it seems. Lots of steampunk touches, a creepy monster, and a big baddie. At the heart of the story are girls working together and developing and using their unique strengths to solve a mystery.
I could easily see this becoming a series, but it reads well as a show more standalone. No cliffhangers! show less

Maggie Fishbone is brought to the Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls after she is kicked out of her old orphanage. A dark foyer, dreary organ music in the background, and a procession of downtrodden girls in gray uniforms would convince anyone that life at the Midwatch is going to be pretty miserable... but things are not always as they seem. As soon as Maggie is ushered through the doors to the rest of the school, she discovers warmth, friendship, and purpose. The girls of the Midwatch are being trained in all manner of useful things for girls to know: Hiding, Climbing, and Observation are just some of the courses offered, and there are opportunities to earn badges for special projects like knot tying and lock picking. Moreover, when show more the police and the City Commissioner run into trouble, they often contact the head of the school, who assigns the girls special missions around the city. Maggie and her fellow first-years aren't likely to get any really challenging assignments yet -- but they're itching to show what they can do!

I always like a boarding school story, especially if the school has some sort of secret or magic. Readers who share this fondness would be well advised to take a look at the Midwatch Institute, as it's a fun mix of steampunk and spycraft, effervescent as a fizzy drink, with friendships being built along the way. show less

When Maggie Fishbone is sent away from her fishing village to the Midwatch Institute, she knows it will be a grim place - and it is, until the moment her adult minder leaves, and the place reveals its secrets. Miss Mandelay believes the girls should learn as many useful skills as they can, and they use these skills to solve mysteries and improve life around the city. Maggie and two other new students, Nell and Sofie, are welcomed warmly into the group of first-years, and after a few weeks of classes - everything from German to Hiding to Contriving - a mystery does present itself for them to solve. The setting is a character itself: not just the Midwatch, with its cakes and its pipe organ that shoots out fireworks and its secret show more passages, but the city itself, a German-inspired place with airships floating through the skies. Maggie and her friends face danger and prevail through cleverness, bravery, and teamwork. Wonderfully satisfying!

See also: The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science

Re-read January 2026

Quotes/notes
Morse Code memory device p. 38

In Mud Harbor, everything had been familiar.
Here, everything was strange and bewildering and difficult. (55)

A Recipe for Chocolate Cake p. 152

How to Tie Four Useful Knots, p. 218-219

"The trouble was, we saw the world quite differently. We disagreed about many things. I always thought we should use our skills for good purposes. And she thought she would train ferrets to steal from bank vaults." (Miss Mandelay, 301) show less

An orphan girl is taken to an unusual school, steampunk version. There is nothing to distinguish this story.