Main Characters: Stephany Landry, Jason
Series: None
Do you want to be popular? Everyone wants to be popular—or at least, Stephanie Landry does. Steph’s been the least popular girl in her class since a certain cherry Super Big Gulp catastrophe five years earlier.
Does being popular matter?
It matters very much—to Steph. That’s why this year, she has a plan to get in with the It Crowd in no time flat. She’s got a secret weapon: an old book called—what else?—How to Be Popular. What does it take to be popular? All Steph has to do is follow the instructions in The Book, and soon she’ll be partying with the It Crowd (including school quarterback Mark Finley) instead of sitting on The Hill Saturday nights, stargazing with her nerdy best pal Becca, and even nerdier Jason (now kind of hot, but still), whose passion for astronomy Steph once shared. Who needs red dwarves when you’re invited to the hottest parties in town? But don’t forget the most important thing about popularity!
It’s easy to become popular. What isn’t so easy? Staying that way.
Meg Cabot has a habit of writing those perfect contemporary stories that capture your heart while you’re reading them. She knows how to write the heck out of a story and I always walk away, loving her books. I don’t think I’ve read a book that I haven’t liked by her and I doubt that’s going to change any time soon.
I adored this book.
It was such a delightful read, which is something that I’ve come to expect from Meg Cabot. She writes normal contemporary young adult reads that always come off fresh and never fails to bring a smile to your face. Stephanie Landry is your normal, everyday average teenager who becomes the butt of a joke that makes its way through her small town. She fumbled once and spilled a drink on the popular girl and ever since then, she’s been known as the town klutz. She spends her day being a nobody, invisible and what not. She has two best friends who she has a great time with, her best friend Jason and her friend, Becca. Jason is Steph’s friend that she’s had practically her whole life and Becca is a nerdy girl who Steph befriends because she needed a friend.
So over the course of a summer, Steph gets into the mindset of changing everyone’s minds about her. She comes to this conclusion when she comes across a book that Jason’s grandma had in the attic. The book is all about How to be Popular. She’s going to use this as a guide to help her gain access to the popular crowd…and it works.
The first day of school, Steph is on a mission. She goes into her plan with a balls out kind of mentality and she totally comes out on top. Things are looking up for her and she couldn’t be more excited about that but while things are looking up for her plan, things with her real friends aren’t looking too hot. Jason is confused about the sudden change in Steph and he doesn’t like it one bit and while Becca is confused, she doesn’t totally banish Steph from her presence. Becca is more concerned about Jason and his feelings for her (Becca) and Jason is more than annoyed that Becca keeps writing on his shoes and acting totally weird…more weirder than Steph. Jason just wants everything to go back to the way they were but he can see that they’re not going to..at least, not anytime soon.
While Steph plans to see her plan through, we see the changes that happen within her and we see what being popular costs. It costs a lot, as Steph finds out. Being popular isn’t all its cracked up to be and the people that are popular sometimes aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
Watching Steph transform herself into Miss Popular and then accomplishing everything she accomplished in this book was too cute. Her road to self discovery was an enjoyable ride. It isn’t perfect and it wasn’t always sunshiny but it felt real and I enjoyed reading about it. Jason was a fantastic hero for Steph and I just adored the both of them together. From Jason and his constant whining over Becca’s latest cardinal sin and Steph’s peeping tom episodes, this book had me laughing and cheering the both of them on.
Meg Cabot wrote a fantastic contemporary young adult book that I’m sure loads of people will enjoy and I’m so frickin’ happy that I listened to my friend Grace when she challenged me to read Meg Cabot back in ’05 when she was here visiting. She’s the bomb because I absolutely adore Meg Cabot. If you haven’t read this book, you totally should. It’s a definite treat!
Final Grade: B
I’ve only read one Meg Cabot and it was one of her adult books. I thought it was ok. Nothing that blew me away or sent me clamoring for more. But I’ll have to give one of her YA’s a chance.
The title reminds me of a book I read for my Teen Troves blog. It was called How Not to be Popular….that one I loved!
Hey, do you still have your Teen Troves blog? I remember looking for it but not being to find it…just curious.
What book by MC did you read?
No, my friend that helped me couldn’t keep up with reviews.
And I found that I didn’t like reviewing teen books for…TEENS. I’m a 27 year old who loves YA but I wanted to discuss YA with other people my age who loved it. Not for their intended audience. It just wasn’t working for us so we shut it down.
I think the MC was the first in the “Boy Series”. I thought it was ok.
Awesome review! I loved this one too, it was so cute. Meg Cabot is amazing (:
Mollie,
That sucks, I know what you mean. I want to be able to discuss YA books with people my own age but I’ve found that not too many people my age are reading or give a crap about YA books like I do…*sigh* Oh well.
I’m glad you’re still blogging though.
Awww, I loved those Boys series, is that the one where the entire story is written in emails, texts and journal entries? Those were too cute.
Sara,
Thanks, I’m a huge Meg Cabot fan so I’ll read anything by her.
Steph kind of sounds like Jenny from Gossip Girl. LOL And I hate Jenny’s character.
But this book sounds cute, because who hasn’t had friends in school who changed one day?
Oh no, Steph is FAR from a Jenny. I hate Jenny too but Steph’s reasons for getting popular were different from Jenny’s…and the way she went about it was wayyy better than Jenny too.
Ugh, I hate Jenny.