How to Be Popular

August 7, 2006
Steph Landry is tired of being unpopular ("If anyone in school does anything remotely crack-headed or dorky, people are all, 'Don't pull a Steph!' "). After she discovers an old guide to popularity, she resolves to improve her status. She buys a new wardrobe, organizes a school fundraiser and smiles a lot. The plot is entertaining, if predictable: Steph quickly rises to the top, even forming a friendship with her cute crush. But along the way she strains her relationship with her best friend and neighbor, Jason—and slowly sees that life at the pinnacle is not all it seems. Readers may have trouble believing that the heroine's sixth-grade faux pas would warrant the long-term wrath of the school's queen bee (Steph accidentally spilled her Big Red Super Big Gulp on Lauren's designer skirt in front of the whole cafeteria). But the characters and dialogue come across as genuine and funny. Readers will likely find the antiquated advice from the popularity book hilarious ("People are drawn to those who have the ability to make them feel excited whether about a car wash, a weenie roast, or a sock hop!"). Steph realizes there is some truth to it, though, even if what the book really helped her do was figure out how she feels about Jason. Ages 12-up.

January 1, 2007
Tired of being known only as the girl who spilled a Big Gulp on the most popular girl in school's white D&G skirt in sixth grade, high school junior Steph hatches a plan to become popular. Though the plot is fairly standard and Steph's sentence fragments get annoying, this lighthearted look at social standing in high school is otherwise appealing.

(Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 15, 2006
Preparing for eleventh grade, Steph studies an old book entitled " How to Be Popular" and plots her path into the A-Crowd. Steph's name has been synonymous with " klutz" since sixth grade, when she spilled a red Super Big Gulp on a popular girl's white skirt. But when she puts her mind to it, she surprises herself as well as her longtime best friends, Jason and Becca. Soon, though, Steph discovers that the love of her life is " not" sitting at the popular kids' table in the school cafeteria. Some readers will carefully study the pages of tips from Steph's guidebook that appear at the beginning of each chapter. But others will find themselves skipping the advice on social graces in order to get on with Cabot's appealing, first-person story of teen yearning, befuddlement, and love. Despite the scenes when Steph spies on next-door neighbor Jason in his bedroom at night, there's an appealing innocence about the story, which depicts the main characters within their extended families as well as with their peers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)