How to Be Popular

A quick, entertaining read, "How to Be Popular" presents a fantasy common to tweens and teens: overnight popularity. Meg Cabot is a familiar name to many female YA readers, having penned the much-loved "Princess Diaries" series, as well as several other series for both teens and adults. In this novel, readers spend the first week of the new school year with Steph Landry, a high school junior whose name has become synonymous with "screw up" in her town ever since an unfortunate beverage-related incident in sixth grade. (Characters who make clumsy or thoughtless mistakes are frequently admonished not to "Pull a Steph Landry.") Steph has discovered a copy of an old self-help book (from which this novel takes its name) and is determined to show more reinvent herself and become popular. Refreshingly, most of the advice offered by the book-within-a-book is actually reasonable and helpful to teenagers, and Steph walks a few fine ethical lines before ultimately making choices that both redeem her and help her achieve her goal of becoming better-liked by her peers. Romantic undertones with the boy next door add a little interest but no explicit scenes; alcohol use is mentioned but not engaged in by the central characters. Although the ending is a little too tidy to satisfy those with a preference for realism, it will satisfy readers looking for a Happily Ever After. Recommended for ages 12 and up. show less

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

If you've ever heard the phrase "Way to pull a Steph Landry!," you wouldn't be alone. Pretty much everyone who attends Bloomville High in the heart of Greene County, Indiana, knows who Steph Landry is. Or, they at least know better than to ever, ever, ever do something that would have someone uttering the aforementioned phrase. Even kids under the age of five know what it means to "pull a Steph Landry." In that they know it means instant social doom.

So what did this girl do, you ask? Shoot someone? Rob a store? Dump the Homecoming Queen into a lake, lock the quarterback in a dungeon, lob a hand grenade into the general store? No, what Steph Landy did was much, much worse. She accidentally spilled a Big show more Red Super Big Gulp on Lauren Moffat's white D&G skirt. And even though they had been kind of friends up until that incident in sixth grade, and even though her father tried to remove the stain from Lauren's skirt, and even though her mother ended up buying her a new one, and even though Steph herself apologized for the incident like ten zillion times, Lauren Moffat has been making Steph pay for her mistake ever since.

They're all juniors in high school now--Steph and her best friends Jason and Becca, Lauren and her posse of popular girls and guys, most noticeably her football quarterback boyfriend, Mark Finley. Nearly five years after that accidental dousing in the middle school cafeteria, and Steph is still living down the horror of being a social outcast.

That's all about to change, though. At least if she has anything to say about it. Now that Jason's grandmother is marrying her own widowed grandfather, they've been spending a lot of time at Jason's house. It's during one of those times that Steph finds the book; the one that will shoot her to the top of the popularity totem pole, the one that will exile the social pariah Steph once and for all, and turn her into mega-popular, wonderful, everyone loves her Steph.

Kind of. Maybe. If she plays her cards right. Or she just might end up getting what she wants (popularity), and losing everything she's ever held dear (most noticeably, Jason).

With HOW TO BE POPULAR, Meg Cabot has taken the typical high school teen angst and mixed it up with an all-too-believable situation to create a wonderful, fast-paced read. I'd recommend this book to all fans of Ms. Cabot, all fans of contemporary stories, all fans of young adult literature, period. This is another winner from the queen of teen fiction. Trust me. Pick up a copy of HOW TO BE POPULAR, and you won't be disappointed. show less

In this one book, Cabot takes two of the most popular teen angst topics (mismatched teen romance and teen plots to move from social pariah to popular girl) and combines them into one handy title.

Unfortunately, neither storyline rises above the stereotypical and the combination doesn't improve either.

However, I'm sure the title has been and will continue to be popular with girls who aren't popular and wish they were, but also appreciate fiction that reinforces the literary truths that (spoilers follow!) ... (1) popularity isn't all that great and (2) you're really in love with the guy who's your best friend, not the popular guy you're crushing on.

Apparently, this book will tell you what shoes to wear, how to fix your hair, and everything that really counts to be popular; it knows about popular—okay, I’ll stop.

Coming off of reading the Airhead series, I kept lamenting the fact that Meg Cabot always falls back on the bitchy blonde popular girl stereotype, especially after having several books where the popular girl turns out not to be so bad after all (Princess Diaries, All-American Girl, Avalon High and Tommy Sullivan…). So going into this a second time, I really wasn’t keeping my hopes up. And I was wrong.

Let’s talk about our main character Steph—she has her reasons for wanting to be in the In-Crowd, and while getting revenge on the bitchy popular girl and getting show more the hot senior president are two of those reasons, but both are overshadowed by Steph’s real reason. I got the genuine feeling that she wanted to move on from the embarrassing Super Big Gulp Incident, and the only reason people keep bringing it up is because of Lauren (aforementioned bitchy popular girl). I like that Steph isn’t so much of a goody two-shoes, although a few of her side comments made me cringe (like “She was the dimmest person outside of the Special Ed classes.” Or saying that she would have made fun of her friend Becca for being shy and a scrapbooker. Yeah, that’s really not cool.) Steph tries to be nice to everyone, and not overtly bitchy, even when she’s assimilated into the popular crowd.

She’s not perfect, we’re not supposed to sympathize with her because of her informed abilities, and she’s got her flaws and interests, like her managing her family’s store finances. The very first scene, when we see her and her friends covertly dumping sugar packets on Lauren felt realistic to me, and it manages to be funny at the same time. And Steph actually grows throughout the book—she might not want to point fingers at Lauren, but she’s willing to apologize and try to be friends with the popular cronies who get taken down because of Lauren’s schemes. And even at the end of the book, when Steph gives her whole “Grow up and move on” speech, she turns around and invites Lauren to join her for coffee. Also, the way Steph goes about becoming popular is great—she doesn’t become a bitch, she doesn’t try to sacrifice her friends, and really, all she does is try to become more involved in school. It’s a refreshingly positive thing to see; why can’t there be more of this in young adult books?

The book doesn’t have much a plot to it, though. There’s the usual, slightly boring, budding romance between Steph and her childhood friend Jason; a very exaggerated family drama in Steph’s family between her mother and her grandfather; and the big climatic scene where Steph has to chose between doing what’s right and getting in with the A-Crowd is kind of overblown and feels wooden. There’s no real strong supporting cast, either—Becca feels like she’s never really there (and ends up with someone who doesn’t get introduced until halfway into the book) and Jason is the designated love interest because he just is. Steph’s family exists to be big and wacky, although I did get the sense that she was really close to her grandfather. However, the book largely works because it’s more focused on Steph and how she tries to change her social status without changing her real self.

This is an example of Meg Cabot writing a good book. There’s some flaws to it, but it’s enjoyable, and you want to keep rooting for Steph. It’s frothy fun that doesn’t rely on giving a few traits to force the reader into sympathizing with the main character. I don’t know why I gave it such a low rating when I first read it (probably because of the lack of plot). But now, I can count it among one of my favorite stand-alone books by her. show less

Silly mindless fun, though not as fun as some of Cabot's other books. I hate to say it, because I have really enjoyed (most) all of her books, but this could be the weakest so far. It was just too predictable, with most of the plot feeling like it was lifted out of other books she's already published. I would recommend the Princess Diaries, or Teen Idol, to readers instead. However, for fans of the genre, this book is as fun of a filler as any.

This was fun and frothy. Steph Landry has been ostracised by the popular gang at school for the last five years - in her small town, her name is a catch phrase for doing something embarrassing "Way to be a Steph Landry". When she finds a guidebook entitled 'Hoe to be Popular', Steph follows a plan to get herself liked again - much to the chagrin of her two good friends. What follows is a predictable romantic comedy where the perfect boy might not be the right boy, and the right boy might be right under her nose.
As silly as the story is, Meg Cabot draws an interesting gang of characters, and as usual her heroine is engaging. I think this was intended for a slightly older audience than the Princess Diary books, the language is a little show more more realistic, and while it is still very demure, there are some hilarious peeping Tom scenes.
I'd give this to high school romantic comedy fans. show less

I loved this book way more then I expected. Meg Cabot dose it again with this fun story. The plot is unique and funny. Our main character has a great voice, too. I thought the storys end had great meaning, and was super fun (as was the entire book). Faboulous read.