The Popularity Papers 1
Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- £2.49
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- £2.49
Publisher Description
Lydia and Julie are best friends with one goal: to crack the code of popularity. Lydia's the bold one: aspiring theater star, stick-fighting enthusiast, and human guinea pig. Julie's the shy one: observer and artist, accidental field hockey jock, and faithful recorder. In this notebook they write down their observations and carry out experiments to try to determine what makes the popular girls tick. But somehow, the harder Lydia and Julie try to imitate the popular girls, the farther they get from their goal and each other. Amy Ignatow understands friendship and the fifth grade, and she knows just how to wring humor out of ordinary and extraordinary moments.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This one's for the Wimpy Girls. Riffing on and amplifying the increasingly common diary-style format, Ignatow uses handwritten notes and copious full-color cartoons to put a fresh spin on that quintessential scholastic goal: to be popular. Fifth-graders Lydia and Julie record observations about the habits of popular girls in a secret notebook and set out to test them, leading to a series of entertaining misadventures. Lydia ends up with a bald patch trying to give herself a blonde streak, and the girls' convoluted scheme to get cellphones results in a pair of horribly embarrassing models. Of course, the girls learn that popularity has a price, and even their own lifelong friendship becomes strained. The book's course may be predictable, but Ignatow taps into the girls' preteen concerns and earnest, passionate personalities via the creative format, with its dueling narratives and illustrations that feel ripped from a spiral notebook (a fantasy sequence that has Lydia starring in the school play culminates in the arrival of a pink unicorn that barf up pirate treasure!! ). Readers will quickly devour this hilarious, heartfelt debut. Ages 9 13.
