The Disreputable History of Frankie Landeau-Banks by E. Lockhart, 345 pages A co-worker recommended The Disreputable History of Frankie Landeau-Banks to me as a read-alike for The Gilmore Girls, so of course, that is all I could think of while reading it! But that is not a bad thing. The book is set in an East Coast boarding school and nearly all the characters are over-achieving Ivy League bound children of wealth and privilege. The title character of Frankie is a sophomore who returns from summer vacation a transformed woman. Not only has her body matured, she no longer is someone who accepts her position in society as an innocent "Bunny Rabbit." In the novel, she sets to take over her school's all-male secret society known as the Order of the Basset Hounds in part to make a statement about feminine power in part to fight the panopticon of boarding school life and in part to get the attention of the boy she likes.
Frankie is awesome, and I just loved being inside her brain. In particular, I loved how she knew how to play people, and used all her skills of manipulation to get the results she wanted. I would recommend this to just about everybody (it is that good), but in particular, if you have any smart, budding feminist teens that come to your library, give them this book as one to think on. Have them read Frankie and be prepared to engage them in some semi-serious discussions about power, social theory, the nature of rebellion and protest and imaginary neglected positives.
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