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    How to be Popular: A Novel
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    How to be Popular: A Novel
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    How to be Popular: A Novel
    Audiobook5 hours

    How to be Popular: A Novel

    Written by Meg Cabot

    Narrated by Kate Reinders

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Do you want to be popular?

    Everyone wants to be popular-or at least, Stephanie Landry does. Steph's been the least popular girl in her class since a certain cherry Super Big Gulp catastrophe five years earlier.

    Does being popular matter?

    It matters a lot-to Steph. That's why this year, she has a plan to get in with the It Crowd in no time flat. She's got a secret weapon: an old book called-what else?-How to Be Popular.

    All Steph has to do is follow the instructions in The Book, and soon she'll be partying with the popular kids (including school quarterback Mark Finley) instead of sitting on The Hill Saturday nights, stargazing with her nerdy best pal Becca, and even nerdier Jason (now kind of hot, but still).

    But don't forget the most important thing about popularity!

    It's easy to become popular. What isn't so easy? Staying that way.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 15, 2006
    ISBN9780739336694
    Unavailable
    How to be Popular: A Novel
    Author

    Meg Cabot

    MEG CABOT’s many books for both adults and teens have included numerous #1 New York Times bestsellers, with more than twenty-five million copies sold worldwide. Her Princess Diaries series was made into two hit films by Disney, with a third movie coming soon. Meg currently lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband and various cats.

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    Reviews for How to be Popular

    3.5/5

    352 ratings20 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This read was adorable, if a touch predictable.
    • 3/5
      Huh, so when did I listen to this? Standard Cabot fare.
    • 4/5
      Apparently, this book will tell you what shoes to wear, how to fix your hair, and everything that really counts to be popular; it knows about popular—okay, I’ll stop.

      Coming off of reading the Airhead series, I kept lamenting the fact that Meg Cabot always falls back on the bitchy blonde popular girl stereotype, especially after having several books where the popular girl turns out not to be so bad after all (Princess Diaries, All-American Girl, Avalon High and Tommy Sullivan…). So going into this a second time, I really wasn’t keeping my hopes up. And I was wrong.

      Let’s talk about our main character Steph—she has her reasons for wanting to be in the In-Crowd, and while getting revenge on the bitchy popular girl and getting the hot senior president are two of those reasons, but both are overshadowed by Steph’s real reason. I got the genuine feeling that she wanted to move on from the embarrassing Super Big Gulp Incident, and the only reason people keep bringing it up is because of Lauren (aforementioned bitchy popular girl). I like that Steph isn’t so much of a goody two-shoes, although a few of her side comments made me cringe (like “She was the dimmest person outside of the Special Ed classes.” Or saying that she would have made fun of her friend Becca for being shy and a scrapbooker. Yeah, that’s really not cool.) Steph tries to be nice to everyone, and not overtly bitchy, even when she’s assimilated into the popular crowd.

      She’s not perfect, we’re not supposed to sympathize with her because of her informed abilities, and she’s got her flaws and interests, like her managing her family’s store finances. The very first scene, when we see her and her friends covertly dumping sugar packets on Lauren felt realistic to me, and it manages to be funny at the same time. And Steph actually grows throughout the book—she might not want to point fingers at Lauren, but she’s willing to apologize and try to be friends with the popular cronies who get taken down because of Lauren’s schemes. And even at the end of the book, when Steph gives her whole “Grow up and move on” speech, she turns around and invites Lauren to join her for coffee. Also, the way Steph goes about becoming popular is great—she doesn’t become a bitch, she doesn’t try to sacrifice her friends, and really, all she does is try to become more involved in school. It’s a refreshingly positive thing to see; why can’t there be more of this in young adult books?

      The book doesn’t have much a plot to it, though. There’s the usual, slightly boring, budding romance between Steph and her childhood friend Jason; a very exaggerated family drama in Steph’s family between her mother and her grandfather; and the big climatic scene where Steph has to chose between doing what’s right and getting in with the A-Crowd is kind of overblown and feels wooden. There’s no real strong supporting cast, either—Becca feels like she’s never really there (and ends up with someone who doesn’t get introduced until halfway into the book) and Jason is the designated love interest because he just is. Steph’s family exists to be big and wacky, although I did get the sense that she was really close to her grandfather. However, the book largely works because it’s more focused on Steph and how she tries to change her social status without changing her real self.

      This is an example of Meg Cabot writing a good book. There’s some flaws to it, but it’s enjoyable, and you want to keep rooting for Steph. It’s frothy fun that doesn’t rely on giving a few traits to force the reader into sympathizing with the main character. I don’t know why I gave it such a low rating when I first read it (probably because of the lack of plot). But now, I can count it among one of my favorite stand-alone books by her.
    • 4/5
      Steph Landry is an average high school student in Indiana with best friends Jason and Bex. The three teens have been ostracized by their peers because of a certain incident Steph had in 5th grade with extremely popular Lauren Moffat. While cleaning Jason’s grandmother’s attic, Steph finds a book titled How to be Popular and decides that using the book’s advice will help her achieve a position at the top of the social pyramid. Over the course of a week, Steph makes drastic changes to her lifestyle to acquire popularity. How to be Popular is the classic story of a teen girl; she has best friends who love her for who she is but she wants a better social status even if it means acting like someone else. She thinks that once she is popular, all of her problems will be solved. The book reveals that while accomplishing popularity may be possible, maintaining it without altering who you are as a friend is nearly impossible. This lesson is extremely explicit in the book and may annoy the reader with the repetitiveness. The characters are amicable but slightly impersonal because many were extreme stereotypes. For example, Lauren Moffat is the popular character. She is beautiful, rich, and explicitly cruel while her boyfriend Mark is the typical jock who plays football and is oblivious to his girlfriend’s malicious behavior towards others. An excerpt from the book Steph finds is placed in the beginning of each chapter to display Steph’s upcoming goal. For example, the book advises to partake in school activities and the chapter includes Steph’s efforts in organizing a fundraiser. The citations are a creative way to begin each chapter and to keep the reader intrigued. The writing is not particularly challenging making the book an excellent summer read. However, if the reader is looking for a book that has substance and ambiguity, this novel is not recommended. Although the ending and the overall plot line were tremendously predictable and the writing simple, How to be Popular is a model high school love story if a girl trying to accomplish popularity.
    • 3/5
      Funny light hearted teenage romance. classic meg cabot. The two teen age characters, Jason and Stephanie, regarless of their typical teenage experiences, are truly emotionally mature for their age.
    • 5/5
      Great Book!!!! Just LOVED it!!! We all want to be popular, but at what price?
    • 3/5
      Steph is tired of being the butt of jokes. She has put up with it for 5 years since spilling a Big Gulp sized Big Red soda on the skirt of one of the popular girls, who has never been able to just let it go. Steph's plan for her 11th grade year is to become popular. And, well, it works... kind of.This was a fun read. My first Meg Cabot book. I couldn't believe I hadn't read any of her books before. I love the lesson of not needing to be popular to have great friends and a fun high school experience. I was also very happy to see Steph not make too many mistakes during her short rise to popularity. She was able to keep her head on straight for the most part.
    • 4/5
      This was a funny and enjoyable book. I liked the message as well - popularity isn't exactly what you think it is, and some parts of it aren't worth having. I also liked that Steph learned about real popularity and what it takes.
    • 4/5
      Cute and quirky, I liked the energy of this book. Meg Cabot's writing in general is so high energy that it's fun to read. The book is a what-if scenario that goes wrong without the often-seen over-the-top hilarity. It's a typical tale, but well done. I loved especially the secondary characters and their storylines.
    • 3/5
      Once again, I listened to this book on cd. It was cute.
    • 4/5
      I feel like I really need to go back and read all the awesome Cabots. I've somehow managed to read the ones I like least recently. Shame. This book just irks me more than anything. I'm sure the writing is good and others can tolerate it, but the idea that someone would want to be popular is, just like Jason said, something I can't understand in the slightest. It makes relating to Steph Landry's character really difficult, hence making the book a bit of a bore. One of the main criticisms Meg Cabot often gets about her books are that they are very generic. I would never have defended that statement and would say the exact opposite--until reading this book. (On the other hand, it's really evident she had FUN writing this book, so why bother her? xD) There's plenty of originality in it, sure, I mean, a fish mascot? But the small, original details get overshadowed by the fact that this is a horribly overdone plot. Still, adorable conclusion, and it is a little relieving that Steph does learn her lesson when it comes to popularity. I just wish it hadn't taken so long, and it still feels like she has a ways to go. Yay for Jason, much luck to his fictional mind trying to de-blurrify Steph's clearly confused brain! One final note: Here's another Cabot that really would have done well with an alternate title. How to Be Popular? So overdone.Rating: 3.75/5
    • 3/5
      This was fun and frothy. Steph Landry has been ostracised by the popular gang at school for the last five years - in her small town, her name is a catch phrase for doing something embarrassing "Way to be a Steph Landry". When she finds a guidebook entitled 'Hoe to be Popular', Steph follows a plan to get herself liked again - much to the chagrin of her two good friends. What follows is a predictable romantic comedy where the perfect boy might not be the right boy, and the right boy might be right under her nose.As silly as the story is, Meg Cabot draws an interesting gang of characters, and as usual her heroine is engaging. I think this was intended for a slightly older audience than the Princess Diary books, the language is a little more realistic, and while it is still very demure, there are some hilarious peeping Tom scenes.I'd give this to high school romantic comedy fans.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book way more then I expected. Meg Cabot dose it again with this fun story. The plot is unique and funny. Our main character has a great voice, too. I thought the storys end had great meaning, and was super fun (as was the entire book). Faboulous read.
    • 4/5
      Steph finds a old book on how to be popular and decides to use it. She finds out the truth about being popular and also finds out how important friends are. It's pretty typical Meg Cabot fare, quite readable but a bit predictable.
    • 5/5
      Very cute. One of my favorite Meg Cabot titles. Although the plot and story were fairly predictable, the characters of Steph and Jason were so enjoyable I was smiling throughout.
    • 3/5
      So, anyway. This one is OK, in Meg Cabot terms.
    • 4/5
      Silly mindless fun, though not as fun as some of Cabot's other books. I hate to say it, because I have really enjoyed (most) all of her books, but this could be the weakest so far. It was just too predictable, with most of the plot feeling like it was lifted out of other books she's already published. I would recommend the Princess Diaries, or Teen Idol, to readers instead. However, for fans of the genre, this book is as fun of a filler as any.
    • 4/5
      Cute and quirky, I liked the energy of this book. Meg Cabot's writing in general is so high energy that it's fun to read. The book is a what-if scenario that goes wrong without the often-seen over-the-top hilarity. It's a typical tale, but well done. I loved especially the secondary characters and their storylines.
    • 4/5
      Light fun, which is exactly what I expect from Meg.