Book 5: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

"In some ways, we can see fRankie Landau-Banks as a negleced positive. A buried word.

A word inside another word that's getting all the attention.

A mind inside a body that's getting all the attention.

Frankie's mind is a word overlooked, but when uncovered-through invention, imagination, or recollection-it wields a power that is comical, surprising, and memorable." -pg. 330

Now, in case you're wondering what a "neglected positive" is (such as I did, not being an English person), I found this fellow blogger's entry to give you some examples so you can get the gist of it. Click me to see it!

OK, moving on. This book took me a bit longer to get through than the others, but overall I enjoyed it. Two things stood out to me:

1) Frankie's sense of humor-a little quirky, but also intelligent, I just found it amusing-perhaps we share the same sense of humor, anyways, something I could kind of relate to being someone who enjoys a good laugh myself.

2) The Plot (capital "P", to add a dramatic effect)-I liked the plot because it was easy to digest. Most of the other books I blog about involve suicide or some horrible incident-but this book was a nice break because I didn't get too upset, sad, angry, etc.-I could just enjoy it.

What's the Plot? Funny you ask!

The Disreputable History is a story of an adolescent girl at a private high school. Most of the book takes place during Frankie's freshman and sophomore years. I guess you could consider this a mystery of sorts-she discovers that at her school there is a secret society-one that her dad was a part of, but even he won't divulge the details to her. Frankie's determined to figure out what the society is, who belongs to it, what they do, etc. The book addresses themes of friendship, relationships, feminism, a hint of religion, and a general view of the high school experience (fitting in, different "cliques" or social groups, classes, etc.".

From what I can remember there's little profanity and a little bit of content regarding sex, so I'd say it's pretty appropriate for most adolescents. It took me, personally, a little bit of effort to really get into it-but as I said, overall pretty good. Again, not one I'm sure I would put money into or keep in my office-it doesn't really address and specific or intense issues-but one I could definitely recommend to students-especially strong-willed females.