How to Win at High School

Gr 7 Up—As a junior transfer student, Adam Higgs is just another high school loser. Influenced by his younger sister and older brother's high school popularity and wanting to make up for a tragic accident, Adam pulls inspiration from Scarface's Tony Montana in his quest to become one of the "gods" of Nixon Collegiate. Adam's first step to popularity is a job at Pizza Hut to earn money for stylish clothes and the nickname of "Pizza Man." After a few missteps, Adam climbs the social ladder while making money doing homework assignments for the popular kids. Throughout the book, the teen raises his stakes by going to a clubs, getting a pretty girlfriend, hiring a team of loser nerds to assist with his increasingly popular homework business, selling fake IDs, going to parties, selling pills, and abusing drugs and alcohol. All the while, Adam's siblings and girlfriend, Victoria Lemieux, are the quiet voices of reason trying to assure him that being happy with himself is the real key to happiness. While Matthews's debut YA novel has a fast plot with gritty content and dialogue that will appeal to teens, his characters are flat and Adam's quest for popularity and attitude of, "Money is money. Power is power. Prestige is everything" fail to bring much depth to the protagonist's cautionary tale.—Adrienne L. Strock, Nashville Public Library