Harry N. Abrams, 4/2010
Lydia Goldblatt
and Julie Graham-Chang are best friends with one goal: to crack the
code of popularity. Lydia’s the bold one: aspiring theater star,
stick-fighting enthusiast, human guinea pig. Julie’s the shy one:
observer and artist, accidental field hockey star, faithful recorder.
In this notebook they write down their observations and carry out
experiments to try to determine what makes the popular girls tick. But
somehow, when Lydia and Julie try to imitate the popular girls, their
efforts don’t translate into instant popularity. Lydia ends up with a
bald spot, their parents won’t stop yelling, and Julie finds herself
the number-one crush of Roland Asbjørnsen. Worse, they seem to be
drifting farther and farther from their goal—and each other.
Amy
Ignatow’s hilarious debut novel introduces the intrepid fifth-graders
Julie and Lydia, whose quest to understand popularity may not succeed
in the ways they want, but will succeed in keeping readers in stitches.
From Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books:
Lydia
and Julie, BFFs since birth, are now preparing to enter junior high,
and they're on a mission to become popular. First, however, they have
to determine exactly how popularity is achieved, so they decide to
approach the matter as any good scientist would: observe those
creatures already at the height of popularity and apply said
observations to themselves, in the hopes of cracking into that
mysterious world of junior-high stardom. The two record their
observations and the often spectacularly unsuccessful outcomes of their
various social experiments in a scrapbook-like journal, complete with
notes passed at school, lists of projected popularity goals, and
credibly goofy and kidlike drawings. The story here is fairly familiar:
the girls fail miserably at their first attempts at the A-list (Lydia's
hair falls out after a botched dye job, among other disasters) but
eventually find acceptance in the upper echelon, only to learn the
valuable lesson that it's the people you're most comfortable around who
make the best friends. The diary format, however, adds an extra
dimension of funny, and as in Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series about Greg
Heffley, it allows Julie and Lydia to come alive through their witty
dialogue, their perceptive commentary, and even their characteristic
handwriting. Secondary characters shine as well, particularly Julie's
embarrassing but ultimately charming two dads, along with Lydia's
goth-punk sister, a font of random quips and junior high wisdom. The
popular kids end up being far from perfect and each has issues of her
own to contend with, making the actual friendships that form among the
girls all the more endearing. Those waiting for the next installment of
Greg Heffley's adventures will be well served by this amusing
experiment in sixth-grade celebrity. KQG
Amy Ignatow
is an illustrator and teacher who has also been a farmer, a florist, a
short-order vegan cook, a dancing chicken, an SAT prep instructor, a
telefundraiser, a wedding singer, a ghostwriter for Internet personal
ads, a reporter, and an air-brush face and body painter working under
the name “Ooga.” She graduated from Moore College of Art and Design and
lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Mark, and their cat, Mathilda,
whom they believe to be well-meaning despite all evidence to the
contrary.
What is the secret to being popular? If you know, by all means, tell us, because we don't have a clue.
