50 YA Books We Want Adapted to the Big or Small Screen

Cover to How to be Popular by Meg Cabot. Image via Harper Tempest.

48. How to Be Popular

Even though Meg Cabot’s best known for her The Princess Diaries series, she’s actually written quite a few young adult novels. Really, about the only ones that couldn’t appear on this list are The Princess Diaries and Avalon High, since the latter had a Disney Channel Original Movie (and there’s a throwback, eh?) way back in 2010.

Somehow, some way, I’d make the argument that of all of Cabot’s teen-oriented novels, How to Be Popular might just be one of the best, because there’s a lot of comedy to be had here.

Our heroine is Stephanie Landry, who’s basically been on the outside looking in for five years in her small town. It all has to do with a Super Big Gulp.

But now, she has a plan to reinvent herself over the summer, a la Archie getting hot in Riverdale, and it all has to do with a little book known as How to Be Popular. Granted, its advice may be a little outdated but some adaptation never hurt anyone.

It’s just that her best friend, Jason, may also have pulled an Archie. So what’s more important: popularity…or friendship?

This one could do very well in a movie form or even as a miniseries, since advice from the book could serve as episode titles.