Deep Down Popular: A Wish Novel - Hardcover

Phoebe Stone is the beloved and acclaimed author of several novels for middle grade, including The Romeo and Juliet Code, which was hailed by the Boston Globe as quite simply the best novel for young readers . . . since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” She received four starred reviews for The Boy on Cinnamon Street, and another star for her novel Deep Down Popular. Booklist awarded a starred review to Romeo Blue, the follow-up to The Romeo and Juliet Code, calling it compelling, and with plenty of heart and soul.” Phoebe and her husband live in Middlebury, Vermont.

"Sixth-grader Jesse Lou is consumed by thoughts of popular Conrad Smith, but in the small Virginia town where they live, Conrad is popular, while tomboy Jesse Lou has only maybe-when-I-feel-like-it” friends. At the beginning of the school year, Conrad starts wearing a leg brace, which translates into loss of his considerable popularity and gives Jesse Lou an opening. Soon she, Conrad, and quirky fourth-grader Quentin Duster become a triumverate involved in an outlandish plot to save Bailey Hardware from competition from a big box” store. Meanwhile, refreshingly honest Jesse Lou hopes that Conrad keeps limping. This is an ode to love in many forms. Jessie Lou has loved Conrad since second grade, and she learns someone has been in love with her, as well. There is also a sweet relationship between Jessie Lou and her grandfather, who knows how to turn a Southern phrase, and between Granddaddy and his daughter, Jessie Lou's mama. Jessie Lou tells her tale with the strong, rough-edged purity of a young poet, which she is; equally strong are the story's underpinnings, longing and laughter, and a willingness to believe in something despite the facts, which tangibly manifests itself in a field of flowers that were never supposed to bloom." -- Booklist, starred review

"Sweet and winning." -- Kirkus Reviews