Popular by Maya Van Wagenen

Middle school student Maya Van Wagenen considers herself a social outcast.  She's smart, geeky and has a mouthful of braces - which is the perfect combination to attract adolescent bullies.  Most of the time, she tries to just be invisible - to blend into the crowd.  Her deliberate anonymity changes, however, when she discovers Betty Cornell's 1950s guide to teen popularity in  a stack of old books.  Intrigued, she decides to try out its advice throughout her 8th grade year and see if Cornell's old-fashioned tips still work for modern teens.

What follows is a funny and honest memoir about a girl coming out of her shell, trying new things and meeting new people.  Cornell's popularity guide has Maya trying everything from squeezing into a girdle to wearing Vasoline on her eyelids, and she faithfully tries it all.  By the end of her final year in middle school, Maya has become more popular, but not in the way she expected.  It turns out that popularity isn't about sitting at the cool table at lunch after all.  It's something better.

I found Popular to be refreshing.  Maya, at only 14 years old, has written a memoir brimming with youth and humor.  Her inviting writing style encourages readers to feel each heartbreak and triumph right alongside her as she makes her way through the school year.  Her journey, which she conveys in diary format, is well-organized and deeply meaningful.  I often found myself asking what I would do in certain situations, or pondering how one truly measures popularity. 

While this was an easy read, it was still a thoughtful one, and one that I enjoyed very much.  As soon as I finished reading, I loaned this to one of my students-- another 8th grader who reminds me so much of Maya that I was making comparisons between the two of them all throughout the book.  There are a lot of Mayas in the world - shy, smart girls who could use a confidence booster. I think Popular could help a lot of them see life a bit more positively.

It is clear that Maya Van Wagenen is headed for a bright future at a writer.  Popular is an excellent first outing, and I can only imagine how her skills will grow with time and maturity.  This is one young lady to watch, and this book is one that everyone could benefit from reading.