POPULAR Author Alissa Grosso Book Recommendations!

Please welcome Alissa Grosso, author of POPULAR and here today as part of her Teen Book Scene blog tour. She's here to share what books her past self would have recommended at ages 5, 11, 16 and 20.  

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Age 5: Thumbelina with accompanying record. I know I'm
showing my age here, but when I was about 5 years old I recall having a paperback picture book of the Thumbelina story with an accompanying record, what is not affectionately called vinyl, but which was what folks actually listened to audio media on way back when.

I also had a Holly Hobbie (you probably won't know who she is) record player that was white and plastic and was supposed to have this fake blue plastic gramophone thing on it, but that had long since broken off. Anyway, I can recall listening to that Thumbelina record over and over again while dutifully flipping the pages of my book every time that bell sounded.

Age 11: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. I really loved this mystery book with all the eccentric characters. I also recall writing a very enthusiastic book report and not getting a very good grade. Looking back on it, I wonder why my school insisted on hiring such horrible reading teachers.

Age 16: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Perhaps because of all those lousy reading teachers, and all those stupid required reading assignments they made us do, I was always skeptical of any book we were assigned to read in school. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the first books that I was assigned that turned out to be a really, really good book.


Age 20: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. As you might have guessed of someone who writes books and who has worked in libraries, I majored in English in college. So, when I was in my 20s I read a lot of good books, including lots and lots of classics, but for fun I had a big interest in science fiction. So, at age 20 I would have been gushing about writers like Philip K. Dick and Jack Vance, and all sorts of science fiction books from the 1960s that I was only just discovering.

--Alissa Grosso

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Thanks for stopping by. Great picks! We also remember loving THE WESTING GAME and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Haven't heard of ANDROIDS but it sounds interesting! Be sure to check out POPULAR! 

Meet the clique that rules Fidelity High: Olivia, Zelda, Nordica, and Shelly, each one handpicked by über-popular Hamilton Best. You know you're "in" when you make the guest list for one of Hamilton's parties. And in the thralls of senior year, everyone wants to get noticed by Hamilton.

But Hamilton's elite entourage is coming apart at the seams. Olivia fantasizes about finally having a boyfriend, Zelda dreams of ditching high school, Nordica wants to be alone with her photography, and Shelly's plotting to dethrone Hamilton. Lies and secrets are ripping away the careful ties that have kept them together for years. But Hamilton has the biggest secret of all, one that only her boyfriend Alex knows. If the truth got out, it would shock everyone and destroy Hamilton's fragile world—and she'll do anything to protect her secret and keep her clique together.