Book Review: The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang

Genre:
Realistic Fiction, Diary Novels, First Person Narrative, Humorous Stories, LGBT fiction

Interest Level:
Ages 9-12

Book Theme:
School cliques, popularity, LGBT parents, comedy


Books with Similar Themes: 
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, Best Friends and Drama Queens by Meg Cabot


Bibliographic Information:

Ignatow, A. (2010). The popularity papers: Research for the social improvement and general betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang. New York: Amulet Books.         

Plot:  
Best friends Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang are in the fifth grade and have no idea how to be popular. They decide that together they will embark on an investigation to discover what makes people popular. They keep a diary and write their observations of several girls in their class. When they try to follow what works for the popular girls,it doesn't work out so well for them. During their study a boy gets a crush on Julie and writes her a song that the choir sings in front of the whole school (talk about embarrassing!), Lydia has an unfortunate incident trying to dye her hair with bleach, and both girls learn that not calling their parents is not the best way to get their own cell phones. Trying to be popular doesn't prove to be as easy as they thought; it even begins to ruin their friendship! Can the two girls make up and be friends again, or will the desire to be popular be more important?

Review:  
This hilarious book is one that tweens will love on so many levels. It takes the everyday struggles of fifth grade and paints them in a comical light to which tweens can still relate. It deals with all sorts of tween issues like establishing independence, wanting to fit in, and noticing the opposite sex. Some of these tween issues can be painful, but this book puts a spin on them so that they are funny enough to make a tween laugh but funny in a way that the tween will feel the writer is laughing with them and not at them. Despite the humorous approach this book is a very empathetic one that addresses difficult tween issues in a way that is both safe and enjoyable! This book is a define must-read for tweens who are trying to fit in or who just want a good laugh!

  
Notable tweens:

Lydia Goldblatt- Lydia is the more outgoing of the two friends. She is the one who does most of the observations of the popular girls. Lydia has a beautiful voice and loves singing, but never gets picked for solos because one of the popular girls, who can't even sing, always gets picked! Lydia thinks this is very unfair. She also gets teased by one of her male classmates who calls her Lydia Goldbladder. Lydia hates this but eventually decides to use it to her advantage. She has an older sister named Melody who is really weird, but she starts to discover that Melody isn't as bad as she though.

Julie Graham-Chang- Julie is the quieter of the two friends and the one who does all the writing in the journal. Julie is being raised by her two dads. When one of the popular girls makes mean comments about her dads Julie doesn't understand what the big deal is. Julie joins the field hockey team and realizes she isn't that bad at it. When one of the boys in class likes her, she is mortified. Julie is definitely less enthusiastic about their experiment than Lydia is, but she decides to go along with it anyway.