Title: The Princess Diaries Author: Meg Cabot Publication ...

Title: The Princess Diaries Author: Meg Cabot Publication Information: New York: HarperTrophy, 2000. Age group: Grades 6 & up. Topics: Friendship, school, self-identity, family relationships, responsibility Notes: Great appeal for female readers, funny and engaging Booktalk: What’s worse than Freshman year? Usually it means a new school, where the classes get harder and the environment gets bigger. It often means starting over in the pecking order, being the youngest, unpopular, and picked on. It is when you can feel the most awkward, the most uncool. Mia Thermopolis feels this way. She is 5’9’’, flat-chested, and has size ten feet. In the lunch room, instead of the jock table, the cheerleader table, the rich kids table, or any of the other tables, she sits with her best friend Lilly and a few friends. Sort of the table without a label. But at least she knew who she was: Mia Thermopolis, daughter of an artist mom and a European father who never married. That is until her dad visits and drops some news on her: Read p. 43 “Do you really understand what I am telling you, Mia?” I nodded. “You are the prince of Genovia.” “Yes…” he said, like there was more. I didn’t know what else to say. So I tried, “Grandpere was the prince of Genovia before you?” He said, “Yes…” “So Grandmere is… what?” “The dowager princess.” I winced. Ew. That explained a whole lot about Grandmere. Dad could tell he had me stumped. He kept on looking at me all hopeful like. Finally, after I tried just smiling at him innocently for a while, and that didn’t work, I slumped over and said. “Okay. What?” He looked disappointed. “Mia, don’t you know?”

I had my head on the table. You aren’t supposed to do that at the Plaza, but I hadn’t noticed Ivana Trump looking our way. “No…” I said. “I guess not. Know what?” “You’re not Mia Thermopolis anymore, honey,” he said. Because I was born out of wedlock, and my mom doesn’t believe in what she calls the cult of patriarchy, she gave me her last name instead of my dad’s. I raised my head at that. “I’m not?” I said, blinking a few times. “Then who am I?” And he went, kind of sadly, “You’re Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo, Princess of Genovia.” Okay. WHAT? A PRINCESS?? ME??? Yeah. Right. Would you believe it? Would you be happy about it? One day, you are a fourteen year old Freshman, the next, heir to the throne of Genovia. And it’s still the same person in the mirror. The Princess Diaries documents Mia’s struggles, both ordinary and extraordinary, after finding out she is the Princess of Genovia. Will her best friend Lilly still be her friend after she finds out the truth? Will senior Josh Richter notice her? Will she ever be able to pass Algebra? What about getting a date to the Cultural Diversity Dance? And now that the world knows she is the Princess of Genovia, will the media ever leave the sidewalk in front of her school. Reading The Princess Diaries is more like reading letters from your best friend than reading a book. Mia, the narrator, is smart, funny, engaging, and most of all, just a normal teenaged girl who happens to have a tiara. The Princess Diaries is an entertaining book and a wonderful way to spend a few hours.