Parents' Guide to

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

By Stephanie Dunnewind, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Boarding school rebel story more insightful than most.

Book E. Lockhart Literary Fiction 2008
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks Poster Image

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What you will—and won't—find in this book.

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age 11+

Based on 3 parent reviews

Mary L.
Mary L. Adult
January 17, 2023
age 12+

A clever, spirited book with positive and feminist messages for young teenage girls

This National Book Award finalist novel has many positive messages, especially for teenage girls. The main character (Frankie) is a tenth grader dealing with a seemingly impenetrable all-male Secret Society at her elite private school, as well as a boyfriend who often views her possessively and doesn't truly see her as a person. Yet, she perseveres and uses her wit and intellect to stand her ground and make change. Frankie's achievements are just as much how she demands that her alpha-male boyfriend and her boyfriend’s friends be respectful of her and how she is not afraid to discourse when she disagrees with them as they are the pranks she pulls off. She sees an all-male Secret Society— a bastion of exclusivity and patriarchy — and outwits and outperforms them. (Of note: the young men are not simply portrayed as villains, but rather the book offers a nuanced portrayal of teenage boys, too.) Also: Common Sense's review erroneously indicates that "Positive Messages" are "Not present". The Common Sense review discusses “putting bras on school portraits” more than once -- in a way that does not capture the context of a young girl facing a storied, patriarchal school. Instead the Common Sense review inaccurately portrays the girl as brainless and silly, which is ironically exactly what Frankie fights hard to prove wrong. Also, the main character is Jewish. This is not a huge plot point, yet does come up occasionally as the book is stated to take place in a largely Protestant school. This form of representation where being Jewish is not a huge point of conflict but is still indelibly part of her character is an important type of representation.

This title has:

Educational value
Great messages
Great role models
lady of the library
lady of the library Parent of 12 and 15-year-old
March 11, 2010
age 12+

Delightful girl power

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and so have the girls I've recommended it too. I would say 7th or 8th grade+. I don't usually like "girlie" books (as I have sons), but this one was a delightful read.
See all 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Frankie Landau-Banks starts her sophomore year of high school at an elite boarding school with the benefit of a newly curvaceous body that gets her noticed by boys. She starts to wonder, though, if getting attention for her "Ladies" is really that much better than being ignored as she was the previous year. Frankie wants boys to admire her devious mind -- and when she discovers her hot boyfriend is a member of the school's secret society, the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, she decides to prove she's not a harmless "bunny rabbit" anymore. Armed with the society's Disreputable History notebook, she pulls off some of the school's most notorious pranks. But is leading the gang worth losing her boyfriend?

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3):
Kids say (3):

As a boarding school fable, THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS works pretty well. As a grrrl power social manifesto, not so much. Lockhart seems to be grasping for a Message -- she throws in class lectures, P.G. Wodehouse, and one of Frankie's papers on the Cacophony Society -- but never follows through with Frankie actually doing anything that matters. An omniscient narrator informs readers of Frankie's deviousness, but Frankie's achievements are putting bras on school portraits, sitting at the senior table when she's a sophomore (gasp), and making up words (a self-conscious, albeit whimsical, mannerism that undermines her insistence that people take her seriously).

Enjoy this for its clever dialog (a New York boy insists any pizza outside city limits be renamed a DOD -- disk of dough), elaborate pranks, and occasional psychological insights. By the end, though, readers may feel like that boy eating a non-New York pizza: not quite satisfied.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the Frankie's idea of the panopticon -- what unwritten social rules do they follow at home, work, and school? Is there a social value to public displays like dressing as clowns to ride a bus? Do readers agree that Matthew doesn't really "see" Frankie? Is what she did the best way to go about getting a boyfriend or girlfriend to know who you really are?

Book Details

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