hermiene.net

A cautionary novel about the consequences of letting children run their own society without adult supervision. A plane crashes on a deserted island, and the batch of school boys are left to fend for themselves. The title is a reference to Beelzebub, which is a Hebrew word meaning "lord of the flies" (it's a Philistine god worshiped at Ekron, and is mentioned in the Bible, in 2 Kings 1:2-3), but it's also a reference to a literal lord of flies, namely a pig's head on a stick (it attracts so many flies, you see, that the children start calling it by that title). The novel chronicles how the children conceive of and develop their society.