An [b:Amelia's Notebook|24172|Amelia's Notebook (Amelia)|Marissa Moss|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167520476s/24172.jpg|3315885]-style journal shared by best friends who are trying to figure out the secrets of popularity. It's much better than it sounds.

Much more professional review here: http://blogs.kcls.org/newbery/2010/04/the-popularity-papers.html

Side note: one of the girls has two dads. ( )

"The Popularity Papers" follows fifth-grade bffs, Lydia and Julie, as they navigate friendships, popularity, and their identities. The book, "written by" Julie and Lydia, chronicles their observations on the popular girls in their grade and their journey to try and become more popular themselves. As Lydia changes to fit in with the popular girls, she and Julie discover the struggles that come with popularity, crushes, evolving friendships, family dynamics, and finding their identities.
As a middle schooler, this book taught me that popularity is subjective and unimportant and that families and friendships look different to everyone. This book could be used to help students reflect on what they are going through and how it may not be that different from a classmate they think they don't have anything in common with. ( )

After "discovering" the last book in the series, I read the first just to see how it started. Especially for girls who like BFF stories, diaries, and graphic novels. ( )

Breaking away from the traditional chapter-book format, this book features two main characters, Lydia and Julie, and their written communication throughout their fifth grade school year. Determined to figure out how to become popular, the girls vow to study and record the habits of the popular girls. They form a plan, set their goals, and detail their musings and findings in letter writing and illustrating to one another. Each girl’s thoughts are written in her own handwriting and the hilarious colored-pencil drawings complement their points-of-view. Additionally, the book presents an accepting view of alternative families, as neither girl lives in a traditional two-parent household, and Lydia, in fact, lives with her two fathers. The result is a witty, humorous example of the challenges and social pressures experienced by preteens. If your readers enjoy Diary of a Wimpy Kid, they are sure to love this book. Highly recommended. ( )

Recommended Ages: Gr. 3-7

Plot Summary: In their last year before starting junior high, Lydia and Julie decide to chronicle the adventures they have as they observe the popular kids and try to do the same things. They write in a notebook and call their project the Learn and Improve project. The first experiment is to put a blonde streak in Lydia's hair. The hair falls out. The second thing they try is picking up a hobby because Sukie knits. They convince Julie's dad to buy them supplies, but they can't figure out how to do it from the books. The third observation is that Lydia's tryout song for the musical should be more recent and she should wear more feminine clothes to get the feminine role. Lydia ends up as a nun in the chorus for The Sound of Music. The fourth observation is that all of the popular girls have cell phones. They plan to make their parents wish they had a way to contact them by staying too late at a friends house and worrying their parents. Julie ends up with an old, passed down phone, but Lydia gets nothing. What will work? Should they find boys to like? What will work? What will happen when one of them gets invited to a sleepover at Gretchen's house? When one of them makes the field hockey team?

Setting: undetermined, could be any school with a field hockey team and a town that has stick fighting classes that is liberal enough to not make a big deal about Julie having two dads

Characters:
Lydia Goldblatt - blonde, doesn't have much style, writes in cursive and draws decent stick figures
Julie Graham-Chang - has two dads, wears overalls, the artist
Melody - Lydia's older sister who wears dark clothing and sulks all the time
Sukie Thomas - one of the popular girls who plays field hockey
Roland - Norwegian, has older brothers, Lydia and Julie go to his house in an attempt to make their parents worry and give them cell phones, writes a song in Norwegian about how much he likes Julie and shows it to a teacher who turns it into a song for the school concert which embarrasses Julie to no end and makes her really mad when Lydia sings the solo and spills the beans about the story behind the song to everyone
Chuck Cavelleri - older than the girls, in a stick fighting class, Lydia likes him,
Diedre Nutter - running for student council president, has Julie design her campaign posters, which gets the attention of the teachers and starts an art club
Getchen - running for student council president

Recurring Themes: popularity

Controversial Issues:
Julie has two dads

Personal Thoughts: I loved this one. I thought it was smart, funny, and well done. The illustrations are hilarious. I wish Lydia didn't write in cursive because I think it will turn off many students who are looking for a girl equivalent of Wimpy Kid. I think many boys would enjoy it knowing that they enjoyed Smile by Raina T., but I can't imagine boys would choose this one on their own.

Genre: Realistic fiction

Pacing: Medium-Fast because of the format and the girls are usually reporting on something that happened
Characters: Fonts are very different but I read so quickly sometimes I had to remind myself who was who
Frame:
Storyline:

Activity:

Readalikes: Smile ( )