Publication Date: 8/1/2011
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Goodreads Summary:
Cara has never been one of those
girls: confident, self-possessed, and always ready with the perfect
thing to say. A girl at the very top of the popularity tower. One of the
Populazzi.
Now, junior year could change everything. Cara’s
moving to a new school, and her best friend urges her to seize the
moment—with the help of the Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if
Cara transforms into the perfect girlfriend for guys ever-higher on the
tower, she’ll reach the ultimate goal: Supreme Populazzi.
The
Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment, a straight climb up,
but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes
wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of
setting things even a little bit right.
________________________________________________________________________
Cara is a pretty typical teenage girl. All she wants is to fit in and be popular. Now, Cara is entering a new school and her best friend Claudia has the ultimate plan to help Cara infiltrate the "populazzi" at her school. Claudia's goal is for Cara to become the Supreme Populazzi and rule the school in social status and popularity. Of course, Cara wasn't for this in the beginning, but as she becomes more involved she realizes that she's doing it. She's becoming popular, but is the price of popularity worth it?
Popularity. Gosh...every girl, well almost every girl, is concerned about popularity when they get into high school. Elise Allen portrays the voice of a teenage girl very well. She hits it spot on and talks to us about important issues without seeming overbearing. This book was very fun to read. I laughed a lot and enjoyed being a part of Cara's story. Sure, there were times where Cara made some decisions that made absolutely no sense, but in the same way I remember being a teenager and making some of the same mistakes in an effort to fit in with the popular crowd.
I couldn't believe it when Cara's parents basically decided to disown her and have nothing to do with her. They washed their hands of their daughter because of a lie she told. I couldn't imagine a parent doing that. My parents are fully supportive and sure, they would have been disappointed in a decision such as that, but they wouldn't have disowned me or said they wanted nothing to do with me. Consequences would have been given, but Cara's parents took it many, many steps too far. Cara took her own climb of the ladder too far as well when she backs out on her friendship with Claudia to make herself look better to the Populazzi.
This is an awesome book with a great lesson to be learned. Teens need to be reminded that they should love themselves for who they are, and not what everyone else may want them to be. The characters have depth and personality and the story is one that is just plain fun to read!
I couldn't believe it when Cara's parents basically decided to disown her and have nothing to do with her. They washed their hands of their daughter because of a lie she told. I couldn't imagine a parent doing that. My parents are fully supportive and sure, they would have been disappointed in a decision such as that, but they wouldn't have disowned me or said they wanted nothing to do with me. Consequences would have been given, but Cara's parents took it many, many steps too far. Cara took her own climb of the ladder too far as well when she backs out on her friendship with Claudia to make herself look better to the Populazzi.
This is an awesome book with a great lesson to be learned. Teens need to be reminded that they should love themselves for who they are, and not what everyone else may want them to be. The characters have depth and personality and the story is one that is just plain fun to read!
1 comment:
Thanks so much for this review, Lilly! "Just plain fun" makes me just plain happy! I really appreciate you taking the time to read and review Populazzi!
Post a Comment