Really? I found it a dead bore. I have a friend that loved it though. He likes stories where people die.

Really when you get down to it situations like the ones in the book bring out peoples true nature. If they are good people they will work together for the common good. If they are selfish they will look out for themselves. It is that simple. The interesting part is that it really did happen during WWII and the school children not only didn't fall apart into choas and destruction but set up a perfectly well behaved little society at a time when the rest of the world was going to heck. So I guess someone in the English school system had done their job right.