Meg Cabot's award winning series of "The Princess Diaries" led me to start reading the first book and see just what was so good about these books. I am now on the sixth book and I am glad I chose to read them. This is a review on the 1st book of the series...
Your world is in chaos. Suddenly, your life changes in just a few minutes and you are not who you thought you were. This is the scenario of Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot. Mia, a 14-year-old freshman living in New York City with her artist mother, is a normal teen. Her main problems are dealing with the non-vegetarian food at her school, making sure her cat, Fat Louie, doesn’t eat another sock, and her social life, which is sadly lacking. This all changes one day when Mia goes to meet her dad at the Plaza Hotel and he reveals that he is the prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and she is the sole heir to the throne. Mia is horrified that she will one day rule Genovia. Plus, this means she will have to take lessons from her insane grandmother to learn how to be a princess. Even worse, Mia still doesn’t have a date for the Cultural Diversity Dance! Review
Mia lives in New York City with her mother. Life is boring until her mum starts dating her algebra teacher, Mr Gianini! And Mia's flunking algebra! As if this isn't enough, her dad drops the news on her that she is a princess and the next heir to the throne of Genovia! In order to fulfill her needs as a princess, she has to take princess lessons with her grandmother who is no ordinary grandmother. She has eyeliner tattoed on her eyes, she smokes, owns a hairless dog and consistently drinks Sidecar. Plus, she is always moaning at Mia. The Cultural Diversity Dance is looming closer and Mia still hasn't got a date. She can't believe it when the hottest guy in school, Josh Richter asks her out! The book is the contents of Mia's diary and it reveals her personal feelings on her hard-done life. But it's hard to be yourself when the press are everywhere you look...
An extract from the book I found particularly interesting was:
There are four million people in Manhattan, right? That makes about two million of them guys. So out of
TWO MILLION guys, she has to go out with Mr. Gianini. She can't go out with some guy I don't know. She can't go out with some guy she met at D'Agostinos or wherever. Oh, no. She has to go out with my Algebra teacher.
Thanks, Mom. Thanks a whole lot.
A feature:
My favourite character is Mia because I can relate to her thoughts and opinions and I like the way she is very open in her diary. Her reactions to the situations she's put in are humorous and that's why it's hard to put the book down!I would give this book four stars because although I enjoyed it, Mia repetitively notes down her homework and things to do list and it gets a little annoying!
