Popular Vote by Micol Ostow

Pages: 216

Intended Audience: Teens and mature tweens

Genre: Real life

Notes for Parents: Some mild mature themes.

The Back Cover

Citizens! Are you fed up with being the perfect, polished First Daughter of the mayor?

Sick of photo shoots and inauguration balls and the press monitoring your Facebook page?

Annoyed at your gorgeous, smug boyfriend who’s been student council president every year?

Suddenly passionate about a cause involving your high school, and not the latest brand of lip gloss?

Erin Bright is! That’s why she’s running for student council president, and finally standing up for what SHE believes in.

The hitch? Her family’s furious at her, and she may just lose all her friends in the process.

This message brought to you by the Erin Bright Campaign.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This was an American Library Association Popular Paperback Selection.

What’s good?

Dating the popular boy and being the perfect mayoral daughter has been all Erin has ever really cared about, until the school board decides to sell Everett Field, her favorite reading and writing spot. She takes up the cause and must risk love and friendship to save her beloved park. The plot is decent, the characters are solid, and there’s an unexpected plot twist that I didn’t see coming (although I did suspect something was up.)

Best Part: The cover.

What isn’t good?

It is so dated!! There are pop culture references to MySpace, Cameron Diaz, fax machines, Lizzie McGuire, and even Elvis Costello. We’re told Erin’s intelligent, she even has a favorite essayist, but uses immature language in her narration like “obvs,” (swoon), and “that’s so NOT the point,” then spouts profundity like “waxing all nostalgic” and “hope springs eternal” that feels out of place.

Worst part: I don’t care what she’s wearing, what type of concealer she uses, or the color of her teacher’s fingernails.

Recommendation ☺☺☻☻☻ (2/5)

Maybe you have to be a teenager to appreciate this, but the outdatedness may be too much for even the most playful of today’s teens. The narrator was likable, but the narration was tedious. It may have been a hip read 10 years ago, but has failed to pass the test of time.

Ostow, Micol. Popular Vote. New York: Point, 2008.