Non-fiction for youth review: Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek

For this post, I decided to read Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen. I was kind of blown away by it. Here are the quick stats.

• Age Range: 12 and up 
• Grade Level: 7 - 9
• Lexile Measure: 730L (What's this?)
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers (April 15, 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525426817
• ISBN-13: 978-0525426813

I love a good coming-of-age fiction novel, and Popular reads in a similar way. The premise of Popular is that Maya Van Wagener picks up a guide to popularity published in the 1950's and decides to implement the wisdom within at her modern day junior high. Maya really does desire that popularity. She feels like an outcast, and is frequently teased. In some ways, the author is your average teenage girl, but her maturity, self-awareness, empathy, and intelligence made this a great read for this 37 year old. I wish I had been able to read this book in my awkward teenage years, to be honest, and I will definitely pass it along to my daughters when they are a little older, as there are some sensitive situations in the book that I don'f feel they are quite ready for. Teen Vogue did a good article on Maya which you can read here. You can also follow her on Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. Though she's busy with college at the moment, she has been signed for a two book deal, so we have another book to look forward to in the future, and apparently, Dreamworks has bought the rights to the movie, so that stands to be delightful as well!  

Popular has an over 4 star average on both Amazon and GoodReads, and was recognized as a YALSA book of excellence for 2015. All of the acclaim is well-deserved. This book will stick with you. It's simple and light, the way a book inspired by 1950's vintage insights should be, but it also is tender and touching. I enjoyed the author's eccentric family as well as the descriptions of the town they were living at the time. Some subjects that were not handled as well as I might have hoped are obesity and Autism, but Maya is never hateful in her writing, just very true to her teenage voice in those instances. 

Adult Readers of Popular might enjoy 

Please Stop Laughing at Me: One Woman's Inspirational Story by Jodee Blanco 

and

Queen Bees and Wannabees (3rd edition): Helping your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of the Girl World by Rosalind Wiseman

Young Readers might enjoy 

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley 

and of course I would be remiss not to mention the book that inspired Maya, leading to a close friendship with its author, Betty Cornell's Teenage Popularity Guide by Betty Cornell.

Check out this book. It's a quick read, mostly light, and I'd love to hear what you think!