Meg Cabot’s ‘The Princess Diaries’ seems somewhat fantastical. The idea that a young girl can find out she is heir to the throne of a small country and its fortune is not something that happens everyday. Yet Cabot writes in a realistic and appealing way, showing that Mia Thermopolis, despite being anything but the picture of a princess, can adapt like the best of them – even if it’s under duress.
When Mia’s father shares that he can no longer have children and then reveals his princely status, Mia is floored. She doesn’t understand how there is any way that she has royal blood in her. It becomes increasingly evident that it’s all the truth when Mia’s grandmother, the dowager princess and present leader of Genovia, comes to town to give Mia “princess lessons.”
Concerned that her newfound royal status will ruin her longtime friendship with best friend Lilly, Mia avoids telling her about it. When word leaks anyway, she is a found in a mess, dealing with paparazzi, mean girls turned nice, and the interest of popular boy Josh Richter, whom Mia has been interested in for as long as she can remember. Lilly’s brother, Michael, also plays into the revelation, talking to Mia even when she and Lilly are on the outs. Add in that Mia’s mom is dating her algebra teacher, Mr. Gianini, plus the fact that she’s flunking algebra and realizing that everything isn’t what always meets the eye, and Cabot has set up the equation for a disastrous but salvageable first couple months of school. Mia just has to see herself for who she truly is and how she can use that to her advantage.
Even though it was a big part of the book to have Mia flunking algebra and trying to save her grade through after-school study sessions with Mr. Gianini and Lilly’s brother, Michael, the algebra equations throughout the book (which were supposed to be part of Mia’s journal) were somewhat distracting. The book would have worked well without them. Otherwise, the story moved along nicely and set up Mia for a fascinating first couple months of freshman year of high school.
You can find ‘The Princess Diaries’ by Meg Cabot here.