How To Be Popular by Meg Cabot

Who doesn’t want to be popular? Especially someone like Stephanie Landry, who has been the school outcast since the sixth grade Super big Gulp incident. Yes, that’s right in sixth grade she tripped and spilled her red big gulp on the most popular girl in school…Lauren. So when Stephanie comes across a book “How to Be Popular”, she just can’t help herself. All she has to do is follow the simple suggestions in The Book and soon everyone will be eating out of her hands. Leaving behind her best friend Jason, who has stood by her and been her true friend since Kindergarten.

This book is pretty much what you would expect, an unpopular girl who wants the quarterback to fall madly in love with her. She tries to transform herself so that the “It” crowd will love her, along the way hurting the feelings of her true friends and missing out on true love. The story was pretty predictable, although it was a little better than similar books that I’ve read. She was able to stay true to herself and not mess things up completely. I thought some of the “popular” advice was actually good, which was pretty much to just be nice to people, listen when they talk to you, etc. I thought it had some good advice on presenting your best self, and what really matters is how you treat other people. Maybe if Stephanie had just focused on being a nice person and not worried so much about actually being popular it would have been better story, earning friendship for being truly nice and not having to make such an effort for people to like her.

It’s a good beach read, quick and lighthearted.

Reviewed by: Kathy