The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

E. Lockhart. 2008. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. 352 pages. ISBN 978-0-7868-3818-9

Plot Summary: Frankie Landau Banks goes to an elite boarding school—the very best kind. When she returns for her sophomore year she is no longer skinny and geeky but curvaceous and beautiful, and she lands the gorgeous senior Matthew for her boyfriend. But this isn’t enough for Frankie. Matthew is a member of the Secret Order of the Bassetts, an all-male club that Frankie can’t compete with. Hanging out with Matthew’s friends she feels like she isn’t really part of the group—only Matthew’s “eye-candy.” Frankie spies on and then infiltrates the all-boys club and manages to be the best leader they’ve had in a long time. While she loses her relationship with Matthew and his friends she realizes “It is better to be alone…than to be with someone who can’t see who you are.” (p.342).

Critical Review: Even the popular kids have their problems, and this has to be reassuring to the average young adult reader. Frankie is popular, but, she says, she’s a strategist—she had to do some planning to get where she was. And while the book is an entertaining and comic read, Frankie is also a thinker and the reader gets to follow her thoughts on total institutions, power and relationships between the sexes.

Reader's Annotation: Frankie is not the kind of girl who takes “no” for an answer.

About the Author: E. Lockhart grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Seattle, Washington. She now lives in New York City. Lockhart is the author of seven books for young adults: The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book, and The Treasure Map of Boys, Fly on the Wall, Dramarama, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and How to Be Bad. She wrote her first novel when she was eight, and studied acting and taught literature before she started writing full-time. In her online biography she says she writes about high school because: “High school is a microcosm of trapped individuals. They legally have to show up at this place, no matter how rotten it is. The other inhabitants are young, and stupid, and thoughtlessly cruel. It doesn’t matter if your heart is bleeding, or if someone’s going to beat you up, or you’re getting harassed, or you’re failing. You have to go. The emotions generated by this situation are extremely intense – great fun to write about and mine for comedy” (http://e-lockhart.com/main/).

Genre: Realistic fiction

Booktalking Ideas: “And being with him [Matthew] made Frankie feel squashed into a box—a box where she was expected to be sweet and sensitive (but not oversensitive); a box for young and pretty girls who were not as bright or powerful as their boyfriends. A box for people who were not forces to be reckoned with. … Frankie wanted to be a force” (p.214). Listen to how she accomplishes this.

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 7-12.

Challenge Issues: None.

Why I chose this book: I picked The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks because of the honors it won. It is a Printz honor book and a finalist for the National Book Award. It was listed by YALSA on “Best Books for Young Adults” and received a starred review from School Library Journal.