Gutsy Girl- for all those anti Gossip Girl

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart is truly a coming of age tale. Frankie embarks on a journey to find herself, and her inner woman power! I LOVED the character of Frankie and her self-confidence. She is a young girl with guts, intelligence, and power that inspires readers.

Frankie used to be an awkward looking semi-dorky student at her preppy East Coast Private school who mainly lived in her older sisters shadow. But when she suddenly "grew up and grew out" over the summer, she blossomed into a beautiful young woman who got the attention from the hunkiest most popular boy at school, Matthew Livingston. When they start dating, she is on cloud nine. Frankie wants nothing else but to get closer to Matthew but all he seems to care about these days is his secret boys-only society, the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. So Frankie decides she’s going to infiltrate the Bassets… The book continues with Frankie's deceptive ways of joining their society, without them knowing of course.

The great thing about this book is not only the excitement that unravels, but the character of Frankie and her self-realization. I would recommend teaching this book to a group of girls, although boys can and do enjoy this novel often, even though the true inspiration of this book appeals to young women. The easy read enables young women to get wrapped up in the romance of a first boyfriend, the excitement of a new crowd, and the emotions of feeling left out. This book can open students up to exciting stories different than the Gossip Girls, yet just as appealing!

I did think about pitching the book to boys however. Describe the book as this cool, secret society at an Upper East Coast school that becomes infiltrated and briefly describe "Frankie", only do it in a way that Frankie could be a boy or a girl. Most likely, students will assume its a male from the name, then it would be really interesting to see how the male students respond this novel. Gender and its many qualms is the underlying theme of this novel and pitching the book to boys and girls this way may provoke different reactions than if you were to pitch it normally to students, or even all female students.

Read this book for a refreshing female heroine! Please!