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. Back at her elite boarding school after a summer vacation in which she has grown from duckling to swan, sophomore Frankie starts dating cool, gorgeous senior Matthew and instantly becomes a part of his charmed social circle. Hanging with Matthew and his crowd is a thrill, but Frankie begins to chafe as she realizes that the boys are all members of the secret society to which her own father belonged, the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound, and that not only will they never let her join, Matthew will not even tell her about it. Lockhart (Dramarama; The Boyfriend List) dexterously juggles a number of smart and tantalizing themes — class and privilege, feminism and romance, wordplay and thought, friendship and loyalty — and combines the pacing of a mystery with writing that realizes settings and characters, large and small, with an artist's sure hand. Inspired by a class called Cities, Art and Protest, Frankie concocts a brilliant plan to infiltrate the Bassets and has them carry out a series of pranks that wittily challenge the politics of the school. Girls especially will be interested in this unusual portrait of a heroine who falls in love without blurring her sense of self, even if none of her friends understands her, and in Lockhart's fresh approach to gender politics. An exuberant, mischievous story, it scores its points memorably and lastingly. Ages 12-up." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"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." School Library Journal

"Readers are left to make up their own minds about this unique, multifaceted individual while giving her the space — and the attention — she so craves." Horn Book Magazine

"A funny feminist manifesto that will delight the anti-Gossip Girl gang." Kirkus Reviews

"Lockhart creates a unique, indelible character in Frankie, whose oddities only make her more realistic, and teens will be galvanized by her brazen action and her passionate, immediate questions about gender and power, individuals and institutions, and how to fall in love without losing herself." Booklist

E. Lockhart is the author of The Boyfriend List, Fly on the Wall, and The Boy Book. She once portrayed both Peter Quince and a tree in a drama school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, wearing an electric-blue unitard. Her theatrical career ended soon after.