Hollow Fields, by Madeleine Rosca

Hollow Fields (Omnibus), by Madeleine Rosca, 544 pages

This might be appealing to children... Lucy Snow gets lost on her way to boarding school.  When she stumbles across an abandoned-looking building in the woods that turns out to be a school, she gladly signs the contract to live there and thinks she is in the right place.  However, it turns out to be a boarding school for the children of mad scientists, taught in the evil arts of robotics and gravedigging, etc.

I think adults might get bored by this- it doesn't have much going for it.

Negima! Omnibus 1, by Ken Akamatsu

Negima! Omnibus 1, by Ken Akamatsu, 567 pages

Negi Springfield is ten years old and just graduated from magic school.  In order to become a Magister Magi, he must fulfill his first mission: being a teacher in an all-girls high school in Japan.  This is a fairly ridiculous story, with alot of fan service, but it wasn't too bad.  Many of the students have well-formed personalities and are actually really appealing.  The omnibus includes volumes 1-3.