So Who Wants to Be Popular, Anyway? (Fifteen, No 3)

Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As The Rest Of The Series
Review: "Fifteen" was a short lived series of young adult books published in the mid eighties. The books were written by different authors, and loosely tied together by having the characters in each book attend the same high school. The protaganist was always a fifteen year old girl facing universal adolescent problems such as fitting in, crushes on boys, relationships with parents, and self image. There were only six books in the series, which is a shame because they were always interesting and well written. "So Who Wants To Be Popular Anyway?" is about four girls who have been friends since they were young children together. Now that they're in high school, things are starting to change. One of the girls, Darcy, seems to be breaking away from their cozy foursome. She begins hanging with the popular crowd at school and has less time to spare for her old friends. The three left behind are resentful over this desertion, but soon begin to let go of their anger as they realize that newly popular Darcy is actually pretty miserable, and band together to "rescue" her. Like the other books in the "Fifteen" series, this novel explored relevant issues for teens about friendship, but was somehow not as satisfying as the others. The characters were not as well developed as some of the other in the series.