Populazzi

Elise Allen's Populazzi is one of those books that makes me anxious from the start since given the premise, the main character is obviously going to dig herself into a big hole. In the novel Claudia and Cara have been best friend since kindergarten when "The Incident" marked them for their school careers as outcasts with their classmates and bonded them together. They were resigned to the idea that they could not change their scale of popularity until Cara's family ended up moving to a different suburb nearby.

Unbeknownst to Cara, Claudia planned all summer, compiling a binder which she unveiled to Cara right before the start of the school year with a theory that Cara could move up the ladder of popularity at her new school by carefully gauging the different layers, making connections and moving up. Only it gets even worse because Claudia's "genius" idea relies on boyfriends. Hence, anytime Cara would meet someone new I would start cringing about how Claudia's plan could end up hurting others. More than once I was aggravated with Claudia for not realizing how her plan and continual encouragement to go through with it was not very healthy.

Nonetheless, tension and wondering how it is all finally going to work out always keep me flipping the pages, so I read it in one sitting. I appreciated that Cara had different emotions about the process as she went along, as well as her motivations shifting. There were a couple of times when I wanted to see more development with respect to her reactions and thoughts. Yet, other times I was more satisfied with the descriptions.

The book would give teen girls a lot to discuss about making decisions, values, and what aspects of their lives are worth the majority of their time and energy. There was also an array of fun characters that developed and emerged in different ways throughout the book. I had fun guessing just exactly what some of their long-term roles would be. There was also depth to family dynamics in the book.

The publisher recommends it as 9th grade and up which I was glad to see because of some of the issues. I had forgotten until after I finished her book that she has also written a lot for television and movies, such as some of the Barbie movies, which my girls absolutely love. Elise Allen has a talent with knowing her audiences and adapting for different target age groups.

Populazzi's release is coming right up in August, and I imagine it will be a hit! Join me on August 2nd for a stop on Elise Allen's blog tour. I also want to read Elixir that she co-wrote with Hillary Duff.

*Review copy provided. 2011 Debut Author Challenge Book 11/12.