Review by New York Times Review
WHEN YOU'RE IN middle school, you're a mess. It's a world of boys with wispy mustaches and bro-tanks revealing an absence of armpit hair. They make comments like "Damn, that girl is sexy" in cracked voices stuck in the transition between too high and too deep. It's even worse for girls. The moment they get to middle school they start putting on make-up, and they put it on wrong. Growth spurts make them tall and goofy; acne arrives along with a period they are not sure how to manage. At that exact moment, they develop a dream - more of an obsession, really: to be popular. This is when the pain begins. Maya Van Wagenen's book "Popular. A Memoir: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek" is an account of her eighth-grade year. A shy, Hobbit-loving nerd, she had never been outgoing enough to make many friends at school. When she comes across an old copy of "Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide," written in the early 1950s, her mother encourages her to try a "grand experiment" and follow its advice for an entire school year. Having read Cornell's book (republished last month, also by Dutton), I can't say she is the person I would go to for assistance with middle-school social issues. I'm all for former models writing self-help books, but some of Cornell's advice seems antiquated, and no wonder: It's six decades old. She offers a lot of thoughtful common sense, but also makes tone-deaf comments like "If you don't know what foods are fattening, ask your chubby friends, because they will know." More typical is "When you are shy it is possible for you to give people the impression that you are rude" (oh, that's why nobody likes me) and "In order to be a success in this world you have to be pretty as well as look pretty" (I agree with half of that). Van Wagenen seems to have taken to heart the best of Cornell's advice. Each month, she focuses on a different chapter (these include "Figure Problems," "Modeling Tricks," "Look Pretty - Be Pretty," "Are You Shy?" and "Be a Hostess"). She keeps a diary of her efforts, and gradually her life improves: She becomes "popular," at least according to her own enlightened definition. "Real popularity," she writes, "is kindness and acceptance." What makes Van Wagenen's book more affecting than other middle-school survival guides is that not all her problems can be fixed with the right lipstick and better posture. She lives in Brownsville, Tex., a troubled border town. From his office window, her father can see fires from the drug war in Mexico, and that conflict sometimes comes as close as her school parking lot. One of Van Wagenen's sisters died during infancy; another struggles with autism. You can't help admiring her positive attitude in the face of these real-world challenges, just as you can't help rooting for her when she talks to her crush while wearing a 1950s-style straw hat and gloves or when she decides to sit, uninvited, with a different social group at lunch every day and learns how similar everyone is. At times, I found "Popular" painful to read. I'm only two years out of middle school, and my wounds are still fresh. I don't have the distance to look back at that time fondly, and I don't yet feel the need to relive it. Maybe when I'm in my 40s - or maybe never. For now, I am much too busy with more important issues, such as the trauma that is high school. There were moments, too, when Van Wagenen seemed too good to be true. Is anybody this nice? I'm not. But I was inspired by her journey and made a point of saving a copy of "Popular" for my sister, who starts middle school this fall. Maybe if I had read it when I was her age, it could have saved me from a world of hurt, or at least put that world in perspective. MAUDE APATOW is an actor who most recently appeared in "This Is 40." She attends high school in Los Angeles.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [May 11, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
It's not an unfamiliar story: a girl on the lower end of the popularity scale decides to reinvent herself. But Maya Van Wagenen, tired of being a social outcast at her Texas middle school, is far from fictional. The then-eighth-grader unearthed a 1950s guide to popularity and underwent an experiment: to follow all the instructions in the book, no matter how outdated, and document the results for a year. So, dressed in pearls and girdles, Maya begins. It's a touching-and touchingly honest-memoir, as Maya navigates the pitfalls of the eighth grade and her experiment. Though she receives a fair amount of teasing, she does ultimately become more popular as she grows out of her comfort zone, takes an interest in other people, and learns that simple kindnesses are the most effective way to reach others. Maya's voice is fresh and frank, and her experiences at a middle school near the Mexican border provide an often overlooked perspective. Fans of Meg Cabot's How to Be Popular (2006) will be interested to see how this conceit plays out in real life.--Reagan, Maggie Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Starred Review. Gr 7 Up-Though it entertains like fiction, this audiobook is a true story about a girl who conceived of an experiment in which she used a guide to popularity from the 1950s in hopes of escaping the bottom rung of the middle school social ladder. Each month, Van Wagenen chose a different chapter from Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide to follow in her quest to become more popular. The story is hilarious, heartbreaking, and heart-warming. Her actions included changing her hair style regularly, wearing a skirt (unheard of in her school), using Vaseline around her eyes to simulate eye make-up, and sitting with different groups at lunch to try to make friends. She wore hat and gloves to church and pearls everywhere, as Cornell suggests, and even added a girdle and stockings to her wardrobe. Van Wagenen's best friend wasn't privy to the experiment and thought that Maya was going completely out of her mind. The teen experienced many surprises as a result of her experiment, especially the fact that her new outgoing attitude encouraged other wallflowers. In the end, Van Wagenen gains confidence and a sense of self-worth that will last a lifetime. Narrators Amber Faith and Lee Adams portray teens and adults with realism and personality.-Ann Weber, Bellarmine College Preparatory, San Jose, CA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Armed with Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide, self-described "Social Outcast" Van Wagenen chronicles her quest for popularity in this diary-format autobiography. In the midst of school lockdowns, Maya faithfully follows Cornell's 1950s-era advice (including excessive hair brushing, posture practice, etc.) during her journey of self-discovery. Playful tips and photographs add appeal to the unsurprising know-yourself/get-along-with-others messages. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An interesting and earnest memoir of a social experiment conducted by a contemporary eighth-grader who follows the advice in a popularity guide written for 1950s-era teens and blogged the experience for one school year.Van Wagenen is the oldest child in her loving, quirky family. A talented writer, she's funny, thoughtful and self-effacing. She is also, as she describes it, part of the "Social Outcast group, the lowest level of people at school who aren't paid to be there." Over the year, she discovers a great deal, most notably that despite its sounding a bit pat, popularity is "about who you are, and how you treat others." Teens will readily identify with her candid descriptions of social dynamics at her middle school. Many of the scenarios that arise from her adherence to the suggestions in Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide are effectively played to comic effect, such as wearing a girdle or pearls and white gloves. Vignettes about her life, including her grief over the death of a beloved teacher, her horror at hearing the news of a boy killed at a nearby school after he brings in a pellet gun and her excitement over speaking to Betty Cornell by telephone, provide balance.A fascinating and unusual slice-of-life work whose humor will best be appreciated by younger teens. (Memoir. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
