“E. Lockhart won my reader’s heart more than a decade ago with The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, her award-winning book that I can only describe as the funniest feminist novel I’ve ever read.” — BookPage
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father's "bunny rabbit."
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.
Frankie Landau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer.
Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society.
Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew's lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.
Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.
This is the story of how she got that way.
“Big ideas are an essential part of the fun in this sparkling tour de force….An exuberant, mischievous story, it scores its points memorably and lastingly.”
“Lockhart has transcended the chick-lit genre…A funny feminist manifesto that will delight the anti–Gossip Girl gang.”
“An empowered female hero like Frankie is a rare and refreshing find. She is the ultimate feminist role model for teens: a girl with guts and imagination who’s brave enough to take on the “old boy’s club.”
“An extraordinary read and a book that will really brand E. Lockhart as a major league YA author.”
“Lockhart creates a unique, indelible character in Frankie”
“It would be a mistake to underestimate this novel — or its protagonist…[Frankie] will challenge girls’ images of themselves, who they are in relation to boys and why…The novel holds out the hope that a girl like Frankie — who has above all an unwillingness to settle —could grow up to change the world. “The Disreputable History” not only delivers the line, but somehow makes you believe it is true.”
A PDF file of the Hyperion Discussion Guide for The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.
A PDF file of the Printz Honor speech I gave in 2009. And here, video of the same speech.
Some interesting and spirited discussion of the book and its interpretations can be found at The Morning News Tournament of Books, here and here. More analysis of that whole business at the librarian blog, Tea Cozy — here and here.