The Princess Diaries Series: Princess diaries #1
Published by Harper Collins on October 13, 2009
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Coming of Age, Young Adult Fiction / Epistolary (Letters & Diaries), Young Adult Fiction / Fairy Tales & Folklore / General, Young Adult Fiction / Family / Multigenerational, Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary, Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Romance, YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Girls & Women, Young Adult Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Young Adult Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, Young Adult Fiction / Royalty
Pages: 320
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Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Beat the backlistThe first book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot.
Mia Thermopolis is pretty sure there’s nothing worse than being a five-foot-nine, flat-chested freshman, who also happens to be flunking Algebra. Is she ever in for a surprise.
First Mom announces that she’s dating Mia’s Algebra teacher. Then Dad has to go and reveal that he is the crown prince of Genovia. And guess who still doesn’t have a date for the Cultural Diversity Dance?
The Princess Diaries is the first book in the beloved, bestselling series that inspired the feature film starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews.
Review:
Essentially, what saves this book from being just another YA journal-style teenage girl drama-filled mess is Mia’s liveliness, her spirit, her humor, and her. She’s a fantastic protagonist and a good role model – not that she doesn’t make silly mistakes and choices along the way. She’s also a familiar character and reminds me that what’s considered “ordinary” usually disguises something pretty extraordinary. Plus, I love her summing-up up Marx’s contradictions of capitalism; despite the fluffy pink cover, this is no Gossip Girls kind of book – Mia’s not into having the latest crap: she’s a conscientious worrier. She wants to join Greenpeace to save the whales. I did not realize that Meg Cabot had written 11 books about Mia and her journey to becoming Prince’s Genovia, but I had this book on my shelf for several years. My copy is from Borders, which went out of business forever ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the movies, and I am the kind of person who wants to read books as well as enjoy movies. The grandma in the books and the grandma we get in Julie Andrews are vastly different, at least in this first book. I appreciate that each book is just over 200 pages, so while you are wrapped up in some teenage drama series, you do know where the story will go if you see the movies. In ways, I see myself in Mia as I was not a popular girl. I did not have the fantastic drop-dead looks (and still don’t), but I knew I did not want to be fake like the characters Mia interacts with—a great start to the series.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges: