The Book: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
The Author: E. Lockhart http://e-lockhart.com/main/ E. Lockhart is the author of several books for teens (including Dramarama, a previous Book Slam Book). The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is an honor book for the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature and was a National Book Award finalist.
What It's About: Frankie Landau-Banks, known as Bunny Rabbit to her family, is realizing that she refuses to be underestimated. While her sophomore year is starting out with a new look and a new boyfriend, it's not enough, and when she sees the chance to stir up her boarding school and the old-boy network that still rules it, she dives in head-first.
Why I Picked It: This is another award-winner with lots of buzz when it came out and lots to say about it.
What I Thought of It: I am . . . torn . . . about this book. I reread it for the Book Slam and am as torn now as when I first read it. I love the way it's written, the author's narrative style, the Wodehouse-isms. It's the story and the characters that bug me. I think what gets me most is that Frankie never questions the structure and dynamics that give young, rich, white boys so much power; she doesn't question the fairness of them having it, she just wants to have it, too. And I get stuck too, that it is only when she miraculously blossoms into a swan and thus conforms to the accepted beauty standard that she gains the opportunity to infultrate the boys club at all.
The Question I Leave You With: One of the first things the reader learns about Frankie is that during the summer between her freshman and sophomore years in high school, she turned into "a curvaceous young woman with an offbeat look that boys found distinctly appealing." Could Frankie have pulled off her plans if she HADN'T become "attractive"?
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