“Simply delightful.A warm and friendly book, with characters you want to get to know.” - Sunday Times (London) Frank is one of the most memorable children in contemporary fiction.” - Irish Times “This book has stayed with me since I turned the last page. “Frank Banning may be the most endearing scene-stealer you’ll ever meet in the pages of a book.Johnson proves it’s possible to write a comic novel that, at times, is heartbreaking.” - Richmond Times-Dispatch “Johnson’s spare, wry, Salingeresque style evokes those great oddball novels of the past and provides a charming take on the parent-of-challenged-child theme.” - Daily Mail (London) Like Frank, this offbeat story has a big heart.” - BookPage BE FRANK WITH ME is about being an outsider and the ways in which differences help others see the world in a new way.

“Julia Claiborne Johnson ably conjures a quirky cast and a privileged California world. Sit back…and enjoy the show.” - New York Times Book Review Her charming, flawed, quietly courageous characters, each wonderfully different, demand a second reading while we impatiently await the author’s second work.” - Library Journal (starred review) “Johnson’s magnificently poignant, funny, and wholly original debut goes beyond page-turner status. “Readers will find themselves captivated.” - People When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she’s put to work right away-as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders.Īs she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank’s father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation-and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.įull of heart and countless “only-in-Hollywood” moments, Be Frank with Me is a captivating and unconventional story of an unusual mother and son, and the intrepid young woman who finds herself irresistibly pulled into their unforgettable world.

The prickly Mimi reluctantly complies-with a few stipulations: No Ivy-Leaguers or English majors. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she’s flat broke. “Mimi” Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years. WINNER OF THE AUDIE AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE NARRATORĪ sparkling talent makes her fiction debut with this infectious novel that combines the charming pluck of Eloise, the poignant psychological quirks of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the page-turning spirit of Where’d You Go, Bernadette. AN AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION ADULT DEBUT HONOR BOOK

Be frank with me book