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SO EXCITED
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Jessica Darling is not worried about starting Junior High tomorrow...until her sister gives her the "IT" list of everything she needs to do to be popular and make junior high the start of the best years of her life. Jessica is not the best at following the list which includes wearing something different every day, picking your first boyfriend wisely, and most importantly - making the cheer team! Through all of this, Jessica's best friend Bridget seems to be adapting to junior high so well, it's leaving Jessica in the dust...

I feel like this book has the same message as Popularity Papers, but in less of a fun format. Definitely a very girly book, but I'm sure that it would help quell some of the fears girls might have before entering junior high school. There is a bit about a crush in the book, but mostly it is about girl drama and trying to find your place when everyone and everything around you is changing. ( )

Jessica is entering junior high and her sister decides to help her become “IT.” This novel is an amusing and entertaining afternoon read.

The first thing you’ll notice when you read this novel is that Jessica is in junior high, which is a different concept from middle school. Middle school slowly introduces students to the world of secondary education while junior high plunges one into secondary. Jessica isn’t one to worry about popularity until her sister tells her how to be “It!” Bethany, her sister, gives her five rules that the reader will immediately notice as being superficial. Her best friend, Bridget, surprises Jessica with a new haircut and the removal of her braces, which makes her beautiful without knowing it.

The first day of school arrives and the 8th grade boys are flirting with Bridget and Jessica is left to make her own friends because she and Bridget are in different classes. They were supposed to have home economics together, but Jessica ends up in Woodshop. As Bridget realizes her own popularity and wants to be a CHEER leader and Jessica tries to follow her sister’s list, they both realize their friendship is changing. Jessica has to discover her own path, but she can’t do it without the courage she gains chasing the ridiculous list.

If you want a light-hearted, cute book to read, this is a good choice. I even laughed aloud once, and I smiled throughout. ( )

I'm not really sure why this is even going to exist. It sounds pretty cheesy and she probably shouldn't mess with Jessica at this point. Of course I will read it anyway...

As a huge fan of the original Jessica Darling series, or, at least, as huge of a fan as one can be while intentionally deciding not to finish said series, I was super curious about Megan McCafferty's prequel. I mean, more Jessica Darling is pretty much always acceptable, except for the fact that I had my reasons in stopping after two books, but that's an issue from another time. Anyway, now we can see Jessica tackle junior high, and McCafferty brings Jessica's trademark wit, observational skills and honesty to middle school.

Middle school Jessica does have a lot in common with high school Jessica, which is probably not all that surprising given that they are the same person separated by some timey-wimey stuff known as life. McCafferty does a good job making the narration similar but a bit different than that of the original series. This Jessica does come across a good deal younger. She's not got as impressive of a vocabulary, though she's starting to build it because she's discovered that her English teacher will really raise her essay grades for each thesaurus phrase substituted for a normal term. Plus, middle school Jessica is a lot more naive and less confident than high school Jessica.

By high school, Jessica Darling has pretty much comes to terms with her role in the social hierarchy and that she will never be the most popular girl in school. In middle school, Jessica's still trying to be what she's not. The series title, Jessica Darling's It List, is actually a bit misleading. In fact, this is Bethany's It List. Jessica's much older sister Bethany, in a rare instance of sisterly feeling, has decided to help Jessica avoid the curse of dorkdom by passing down the patented method for achieving popularity. Unsurprisingly, the It List does not work so well for Jessica.

See, Jessica, intelligent though she is, does not excel at pretending to be something she is not. Her half-hearted attempts end up fooling no one. Jessica's a bit of a dork and a teacher's pet, and there's no changing that. If she doesn't care about boys, she won't pretend to and she has trouble caring about her friends' woes over such things either. In fact, her biggest seventh grade fails occur when she stops being Jessica, like when she signs up for CHEER TEAM!!!, which she does not have the spirit for.

Megan McCafferty totally captures all the awkwardness of middle school. The romantic awkwardness, like how the boys chant at Bridget on the bus, like hooting like a pack of monkeys is really endearing. Or how Aleck (aka young Marcus Flutie) flirts with a "wear her down" annoyance tactic. The friendship awkwardness, which is pretty much encapsulated by Bridget becoming gorgeous just in time for seventh grade, leaving Jessica to be a normal. The middle school years especially are a time of transition where friendships come and go, and many BFFs are actually trying to climb on top of one another up the social ladder. Then there's the budding friendship between Hope and Jessica, who any readers of the original series know will be besties eventually, bonded by their judgment of everyone else's stupidity and ridiculous social rituals.

The (Totally Not) Guaranteed Guide to Popularity, Prettiness & Perfection is the middle school version of Mean Girls, I swear. I can even cast them for you. Bridget would be the obvious choice for Regina George since she's the prettiest and most popular seventh grader, but she's actually more of a Karen Smith, because she doesn't really know what's going on a lot of the time and is very easily led. Manda is the Regina. She even makes up slang (mondo) and decides when it's over. Sara, though she wants to be a queen bee, is Gretchen Wieners, a born follower, who does everything Manda says and always will, even though she resents Regina's treatment of her. Jessica's the Cady and Hope is Janis/Damian, only they could never care enough to make Jessica into the evil popular girl, and Jessica would never want Burke Roy, the Aaron Samuels figure. Also, I'm sure you all didn't need to know all of that, but, whatever, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

Though it's been too long for me to say with any assurance how well the occurrences here mesh with those of Sloppy Firsts, The (Totally Not) Guaranteed Guide to Popularity, Prettiness & Perfection does stand very nicely on its own. McCafferty's depiction of middle school cliques, awkwardness and romance shines with her trademark humor. ( )