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The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang is a children's book written and illustrated by Amy Ignatow and published in 2010. It is more commonly known simply as The Popularity Papers.

Plot and Format
Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang try to crack the code of popularity. Lydia’s the bold one: aspiring theater star, stick-fighting enthusiast, human guinea pig. Julie’s the shy one: observer and artist, accidental field hockey star, faithful recorder. In this notebook they write down their observations and carry out experiments to try to determine what makes the popular girls tick. But somehow, when Lydia and Julie try to imitate the popular girls, their efforts don’t translate into instant popularity. Lydia ends up with a bald spot, their parents won’t stop yelling, and Julie finds herself the number-one crush of Roland Asbjørnsen. Worse, they seem to be drifting farther and farther from their goal—and each other.

The book is told in a scrapbook format, written and drawn by the two main characters.

About the Author
Amy Ignatow is an author, illustrator, and cartoonist who has worked as a teacher and in a variety of jobs since graduating from Moore College of Art and Design. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Critical reception
"It is testimony to Ignatow’s skill that the two friends emerge as individual personalities — Lydia, braver, more inclined to plunge in; Julie, more grounded, tending to be fearful. This is done largely through the characters’ very distinct prose and drawing styles, and also their different handwriting...The girls feel very real." —The New York Times

"Ignatow taps into the girls' preteen concerns and earnest, passionate personalities via the creative format, with its dueling narratives and illustrations that feel ripped from a spiral notebook (a fantasy sequence that has Lydia starring in the school play culminates in the arrival of a pink unicorn that “barf[s] up pirate treasure!!”). Readers will quickly devour this hilarious, heartfelt debut." —Publisher's Weekly

"Their experiences may be typically tween (boys, cell phones, camping trips, and school musicals), but their reactions to them are laugh-out-loud funny and definitely on par with, though much more feminine than, Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Ignatow offers a quick, fun, well-developed story that invites repeated readings." —Booklist

"Lydia and Julie are comedy gold together, and I laughed out loud over and over again. I have written before about how publishers and writers need to bring the funny if they want to reach kids today, and THE POPULARITY PAPERS delivers hard-core." —Kidliterate

"The characterizations are spot-on, the graphic format appealing for the age group, and preteen girls will recognize themselves in Julie and Lydia, and laugh at, and with them." —LGBT Book Reviews for Children and Young Adults

"This entertaining look at the social hierarchy of preteens and the challenges of growing up will entice even the most reluctant readers." —School Library Journal