The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement

and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie

Graham-Chang (review)

Kate Quealy-Gainer

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Volume 63, Number 9, May 2010,
p. 382 (Review)

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/bcc.0.1784

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/380257

[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ]
382  •  The Bulletin

the stories come off sounding a bit preachy, lacking the appreciation for double-
dealing that any good trickster tale must have and instead offering pat moral lessons.
Nonetheless, the anthology’s short-story format may attract youngsters struggling
with longer chapter books, and the playful theme could inspire readers to design
their own tales of crafty shenanigans. KQG

Ignatow, Amy  The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and
General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang; written and illus. by
Amy Ignatow.  Amulet/Abrams, 2010  208p
ISBN 978-08109-8421-9  $15.95   R  Gr. 4-6
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 mys-
terious 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 (starting with Diary of a Wimpy Kid, BCCB 6/07), 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

Ingold, Jeanette  Paper Daughter.  Houghton, 2010  [176p]

ISBN 978-0-15-205507-3  $17.00
Reviewed from galleys   Ad  Gr. 7-10
Maggie Chen has just lost her father, a journalist who was hit by a car while return-
ing from an assignment. As her mother tries to tie up loose ends of paperwork and
put their lives back into some semblance of order, Maggie decides to carry on with
her plan to do a summer internship at the Seattle Herald. As temporary sidekick
to a veteran writer, Maggie senses some connection between their investigation of
possible scandal in the city planning office and some new information concern-
ing her father’s past, and although the newspaper may be interested in the public
story, Maggie is consumed with trying to uncover the identity that her father had
obviously spent his entire life trying to conceal. Maggie’s narration alternates with
italicized passages from an elderly Chinese immigrant named Fai-yi Li, whose
unfolding life story—he was a “paper son,” a Chinese immigrant claiming legal
right to American entry by purported kinship, of a San Francisco herbalist—holds