The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       January 25, 2015

 

Author  E. Lockhart

Distributor:     
ISBN:                 978-1-76011-330-8
Publisher:         Allen & Unwin
Release Date:    

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Aimed at the 14 going on 500 year old market this is young chick lit at its best as the many conflicts of growing up, making the right choices and love are all woven skilfully into the story of bright girl Frankie Landau-Banks, and her headlong flight into challenging the ‘status quo’.

Frankie is facing a cross roads in her life. She is about to change schools but really does not want too. Change is the issue as she is comfortable where she is but as expected she is being sent to Alabaster Preparatory School to get ready to enter the hallowed portals of Berkley to complete her schooling.

Following in sister Zada’s footsteps and sort of taking her advice, she forms a loose knit friendship with a collection of mildly geekie freshmen, but once she finds her feet, and her physical development turns her from a person who looked a bit ‘put together’ to a girl, boys gave a second and third look to, she was already bored with her life and was set to launch headlong into trouble.

And of course she found trouble, as with her level of intelligence and her inability to overlook a challenge, her desire to impress the guy she thought was the best looking boy in the school, she finds herself in a bit more than just trouble, she almost gets herself expelled.

The message of this story is that life is all about pushing the boundaries, growing up, learning consequences for your actions and when the worst happens, and your life ends up in the sewer, the boy you though was fantastic wipes you as if you never were, that yep, at the end of the day and in spite of everything that happened, ‘it is better to be able to open the doors and discover what is behind them, than to shut them on people’.

Enjoy the journey from good little Bunny Rabbit, the simple, sweet, naive girl Frankie once was, to Frankie Landau-Banks, older, wiser and tougher as she discovers life is really all about not settling for second best, it doesn’t matter what!