The Princess Diaries
-
-
4.5 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- €5.99
-
- €5.99
Publisher Description
Read the book that inspired the smash-hit Disney film, starring Anne Hathaway!
Mia was just an average New York teenager. But one confession from her dad sends her on a whirlwind journey of royal responsibilities, mandatory makeovers and fancy gala balls!
'You're not Mia Thermopolis anymore, honey,' Dad said. 'You're Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo. Princess of Genovia.'
One minute, Mia is a normal fourteen-year-old learning maths, putting up with a bully and crushing on a boy who doesn't know she exists.
The next, Mia is receiving etiquette lessons from her snobby grandmother, getting glamorous makeovers from someone called Paolo, and being trailed by a bodyguard. A life of royalty is every young girl's dream – but Mia can't think of anything more absurd!
Life just got a whole lot more interesting for this distressed princess!
The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot is the first in the fun, funny and beloved Princess Diaries series. The series continues with the second book, A Royal Disaster.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"This is how NOT a princess I am. I am so NOT a princess that when my dad started telling me I was one, I totally started crying." Raised in a Greenwich Village loft in New York City by her flaky-but-loving artist mother, ninth grader Mia Thermopolis is shocked to learn from her father that she is now the heir apparent to Genovia, the tiny European kingdom he rules. Her paternal grandmother further disrupts Mia's life when she comes to town to mold the girl into a proper royal. Cabot's debut children's novel is essentially a classic makeover tale souped up on imperial steroids: a better haircut and an improved wardrobe garner Mia the attention of a hitherto unattainable boy. (Of course this boy isn't all he appears to be, and another boyDthe true friend Mia mostly takes for grantedDturns out to be Mr. Right.) A running gag involving sexual harassment (including a foot fetishist obsessed with Mia's best friend Lilly Moscovitz and a sidewalk groper dubbed the "Blind Guy") is more creepy than funny, and the portrayal of the self-conscious pseudo-zaniness of downtown life is over the top (Lilly's parents, both psychoanalysts, get Rolfed, practice t'ai chi and attend benefits for "the homosexual children of survivors of the Holocaust"). Though Mia's loopy narration has its charms and princess stories can be irresistible, a slapstick cartoonishness prevails here. Ages 12-up. FYI: Plans are in the works for a Disney film to be directed by Garry Marshall and starring Julie Andrews as the grandmother.
