Review #62 - Popular by Maya Van Wagenen

Popular is the story of a girl in the USA on the border of Mexico who is really unpopular. She finds a book on popularity from the 50s and follows the advice to the word as a social experiment. This is her memoir.

Firstly, I wouldn't recommend this to you if you don't want to feel like you have achieved nothing in your life. Maya is a very young author, still in her teens and she writes really well. The pace was good, the story was told well and you really believe in the story. Non-fiction often doesn't make me feel any emotion, even biographies, but this was heart wrenching. You feel sorry for this girl, you cringe when you find out what the book tells her to wear and most of all you feel such compassion for a girl just trying to navigate high school. 

It's a really different take on non fiction and is really interesting to read. For one thing it depicts American High School in a way that isn't really documented in a non-fictional sense. It was also a really interesting concept. I did find her conclusions a bit twee and American dreamy which I didn't love. I felt like I was back at a Shamu show. It was just a bit over-sickly. That being said certain conclusions where she interviewed everyone were really really interesting and gave such a different take on popularity.

I would recommend this if:

You are starting senior school or high school

You want a biography that is accessible to teens

You want an intro into non fiction

I gave this four stars

But it here

Review #34 - Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson & Ernie Colón

This is the Anne Frank graphic biography which goes from her parent's early life to her death and her family's death in the concentration camps. It covers the time after her diary ends and it's sad and gorgeous and perfectly done.

I got this at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam which was underwhelming due to the sheer volume of very loud seven year olds. I was so impressed with the 9/11 memorial when I went in the summer and the british war graves in France when I went three and five years ago on school trips but this didn't quite have the same effect.

I've always really struggled to read the actual Anne Frank Diary as it is very long and I find it hard to be very interested in historical fiction and non-fiction. I really liked the graphic novel as it also went into her experiences after she left the annex and it was more accessible. The speech was done well and it was excellently paced.

The book is absolutely gorgeous and is definitely my favourite graphic novel. It captured their day to day lives really well and I think they did a very good job at capturing their personalities. It was just done really well.

I would read this if:
You want to know more about Anne Frank
You are just about to visit Amsterdam
You want to know more about European History and Nazi Occupation

I gave this five stars.