Lydia Gold­blatt and Julie Gra­ham-Chang, like a lot of girls, want to be pop­u­lar. Amy Ignatow’s The Pop­u­lar­i­ty Papers: Research for the Social Improve­ment and Gen­er­al Bet­ter­ment of Lydia Gold­blatt and Julie Gra­ham-Chang gives the read­er the inside scoop! Told with jour­nal-style, hand­writ­ten chap­ters and engag­ing, fun­ny pic­tures, the book chron­i­cles their obser­va­tions, actions, and mis­takes as they attempt to mim­ic and infil­trate the pop­u­lar set and pre­pare for Junior High School. Inde­pen­dent read­ers— espe­cial­ly girls — are going to eat up this book. Lydia and Julie are laugh out loud fun­ny. At the same time, they are authen­tic. They touch on impor­tant themes like fam­i­ly, friend­ship, and loy­al­ty. They argue; they com­pare notes. When Lydia betrays Julie, the stakes are high. The read­er will be delight­ed by the sharp nar­ra­tive as well as the inevitable, but sur­pris­ing, res­o­lu­tion. There are many things to admire about this book. Lydia and Julie’s world is filled with diver­si­ty, but the nar­ra­tive nev­er gets preachy or didac­tic. They both have help­ful par­ents that are good role mod­els. Their fears and wants — to be includ­ed — are believ­able. But The Pop­u­lar­i­ty Papers is not what we might cat­e­go­rize a Jew­ish book. Lydia may have a Jew­ish last name, but she nev­er relies on Judaism to solve her prob­lems, nor is reli­gion ever even men­tioned. The book’s themes are not reserved for Jew­ish girls, but they are rel­e­vant and impor­tant. In Lydia, The Pop­u­lar­i­ty Papers offers what Jew­ish read­ers want- a great Jew­ish char­ac­ter in the real world. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 9 – 13.