Where It All Goes Down
New Jersey, After September 11
Most of the book takes place in and around Baileywell Preparatory Academy, a boys' boarding school that looks like a "scaled-down, cheesy medieval castle" (1.2). An elite private institution, day student (and full scholarship recipient) Bart Rangely doesn't fit in with the wealthy students very well. From the first day, when students in his English class describe their fancy summer vacations, Bart is hyper-aware that his family isn't in the same league as these kids who have yachts and private chefs.
To some degree, though, class discrepancies played a role in Bart's life long before he came to Baileywell. Even in public school he felt poor compared to his friends, and it bothered him. He lives in Hillbrook, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City that Bart describes as "high-priced (if you didn't count our block) and rich (if you didn't count our family)" (1.6). Bart's nickname for the town is "Hellbrook," which should give you a good sense of its charms.
Just as important as the book's geographical location is the time period in which it's set. Chapter 1 focuses on the events of September 11, 2001, when Bart's dad is killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. This all-too-real national tragedy drives the plot by setting off the series of events that lead Bart to Baileywell.
It also helps us understand Bart as a character. As he privately mourns for his dead father, his town publicly mourns in a different way. "There was black bunting everywhere" (2.20), Bart says of his hometown. "It looked as if they were giving the entire town a military funeral" (2.20). To some extent, Bart feels like he's on a stage as the townspeople struggle to interact with him and his mom.
This climate of terrorism—the fallout from the terrorist acts themselves, as well as the nation's paranoia about what might happen next—informs Bart's experience at Baileywell, which is notorious for its bullying problem. It's no accident that Bart comes to see his bully, Tyro, as a terrorist like the ones that killed his father (8.18). While this is both extreme and unfair, it makes more sense that Bart would feel this way when we consider all the crazy things that are happening around him at the time.