THE ACADEMY

A fashion-mad teen is sent to a military academy to learn discipline.

Frankie knows she’s meant to work in fashion: Her blog is already a huge success, and she’s known for her personal style. But her parents believe that Frankie won’t get far without discipline and good grades—so they ship her off to the military school her grandfather attended. Privileged, strong-willed, and obsessed with fashion, blue-eyed, white-blonde Frankie has a rude awakening at Albany Military Academy, starting with meeting stern disciplinarian Lt. Sturtevant. She has to wake up at 5 a.m., do more physical exercise than she’s ever attempted before, and not break the rules—or risk being kicked out and having to repeat a year of high school back home. Frankie makes slow and unsteady progress, helped by new friends Joni (a closeted white girl) and Jack (a handsome, olive-skinned boy with cochlear implants), ultimately realizing her parents made the right decision. However, the story artificially maneuvers Frankie into having to wow Lt. Sturtevant with a leadership project proposal in order to stay at the Academy. Add in an equally contrived crisis in her relationship with Jack, and it’s hard to care how Frankie’s story ends.

A rare realistic fiction military school novel, but it’s one that won’t recruit any readers. (Fiction. 12-16)