Steph Landry has been unpopular ever since she accidentally spilled a slurpee over queen bee Lauren Moffat's skirt in sixth grade. Now, nearly 5 years later, Lauren has still not forgiven Steph, and everyone in town uses the phrase "Don't pull a Steph!" when talking about doing something stupid or klutzy.

But Steph has had enough of it. She's going to be popular, with the help of a book she found in her best friend Jason's grandmother's attic. The book's going to teach her how to be popular, including but not limited to, wardrobe fixes, being nice, fixing bad reputations, maintaining old friendship, and so on.

So what if her old friends Jason and Becca think she's going crazy by ditching the "criminal mastermind" she used to be? She's friends with Darlene now, the prettiest girl in school! So what if Becca's developing a misconstrued crush on Jason? Steph's making friends with Mark Finley, the most popular and nicest senior in school, who is also Her One. (Only he doesn't know it yet.) So what if it really bugs her that Becca's obsessed with Jason? She's got Mark.

Or does she?

Does Steph really have anything at all? She plans an amazing fundraiser for the senior class, and even Lauren Moffat is being nicer to her. But when Steph is forced to choose between staying loyal to her family and old friends, and being on her new friends' good side by holding a party, which will she choose?

With a memorable cast of minor characters and a sweet ending everyone will root for, Meg Cabot has delivered another crowd-pleaser. HOW TO BE POPULAR is not a book on ditching one's true character in order to be accepted. The book actually contains some good advice in addition to being a good read, too.

wish I had this in high school excellent easy read

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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 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.

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