The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt is completely different from every book I have ever read. There is a main character (Frankie), supporting characters (her mother, her friends, her college roommate), and a plot (small town girl in 1920s New England is accepted to prestigious college on scholarship, makes most of years there, takes jobs in New York and Paris - yay, Jazz Age! - before realizing home is where the heart is), but that is where the similarity to any book I've previously read ends. The reason is that Scrapbook is no novel, but a stunning, full-color scrapbook with ticket stubs and photographs, graduation invitations, dried flowers, hair clippings, and Valentines. The pages are beautiful and truly a pleasure just to look at and contemplate the memorabilia contained within this little book. Moreover, it is a testament to Caroline Preston's creativity and story telling ability that, although no more than a paragraph of text appears on each page of this compact novella, I felt completely satisfied by the end that I knew and understood the characters and their lives.