Meg-A Readers Recap #7 (Review of "How to Be Popular"!)

Hey Everyone!

Week 7 has come and gone for Meg-A Readers and now it's time for that recap!! :)

But first it's time for my weekly Meg Cabot themed tidbit! :)

This week I've got a review of Meg's How to Be Popular, which I started during the Meg-A Readers Read-A-Thon, but unfortunately was unable to finish in time, just because this summer has been CRAZY!!

Anyway...

From Goodreads:

Do you want to be popular?

Everyone wants to be popular or at least, Stephanie Landry does. Steph's been the least popular girl in her class since a certain cherry Super Big Gulp catastrophe five years earlier.

Does being popular matter?

It matters very much to Steph. That's why this year, she has a plan to get in with the It Crowd in no time flat. She's got a secret weapon: an old book called what else? "How to Be Popular."

What does it take to be popular?

All Steph has to do is follow the instructions in The Book, and soon she'll be partying with the It Crowd (including school quarterback Mark Finley) instead of sitting on The Hill Saturday nights, stargazing with her nerdy best pal Becca, and even nerdier Jason (now kind of hot, but still), whose passion for astronomy Steph once shared.

Who needs red dwarves when you're invited to the hottest parties in town?

But don't forget the most important thing about popularity

It's easy to become popular. What isn't so easy? Staying that way.

My Thoughts:

So I read this one back in 2009 during my senior year of high school, and while I still 100% enjoyed it, I will admit I changed my rating a little bit.  I've grown from those four years ago when I graduated and started my first year of college, and find some subjects to be a little too young for me...the subject of popularity being one of them.

Meg's humor is definitely present in this one, just like all her others.  We've got some great characters, however there were times where I wanted to shake Steph and be like, "WHY DOES IT MATTER???"

My high school was the cliche of cliques!  We had the "popular" people, which consisted of jocks, cheerleaders, and close friends to those.  We had the stoners, the music department crowd (which is the group I hung around with, I was in choir, however, I didn't consider myself a part of them...let's just the American Pie reference, "One time at Band camp..." isn't too far off), the nerdier group (techies).  We also had racial segregation, which always bummed me out.

To make a long story short, my social experiences at my high school SUCKED! I hated it!  I was miserable! And like I've mentioned many times here, the only thing that saved me from going insane was the quiet zone of the library and the many books featured around it!

Anyway...Steph, in How to Be Popular, has her mind set on making herself popular, and get herself away from the image the mean girl, Lauren, put her into when Steph accidentally spilled a giant slushie on her D&G skirt FIVE YEARS ago, and forever made it be known as "Don't pull a Steph" or "Way to pull a Steph Landry"!

What helped me with this book, was how Steph FINALLY realized who her true friends were, and made herself question why was trying to be someone she wasn't! Especially for people who had been bullying her for the past five years!

Overall rating:

I originally, the first time I read it in 2009, gave it a five star rating on Goodreads, but after this second time I feel a more appropriate rating would be 4.  It was a cute read, a bit young for me.  I would recommend it for girls (or boys if it tickles your fancy) between the ages of 12 and 16.  It has a couple of older pop culture references that some teens may not get, but it was released in 2006.  Plus they aren't really a part of the story, just a couple of funny one liners.

I'd definitely recommend it to Meg Cabot fans though!  It's got Meg's signature characteristics to her stories! :)

SO NOW to the RECAP!!

We had a fabulously hilarious post from Karen over at The Lady Jessop!  She wrote on how you could be more "Meg Caboty"!   So definitely check it out, because I definitely learned a few things! :)

Also don't forget to enter the giveaways!!

You could win a SIGNED copy of "The Boy Next Door"!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Or enter for the Grand, First, and Second Prizes!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Romance Bookie :)