Mia Thermopolis is your average urban ninth grader. Even though she lives in Greenwich Village with a single mom who is a semifamous painter, Mia still puts on her Doc Martens one at a time, and the most exciting things she ever dreams about are smacking lips with sexy senior Josh Richter, "six feet of unadulterated hotness," and passing Algebra I. Then Mia's dad comes to town, and drops a major bomb. Turns out he's not just a European politician as he's always lead her to believe, but actually the prince of a small country! And Mia, his only heir, is now considered the crown princess of Genovia! She doesn't even know how to begin to cope: "I am so NOT a princess.... You never saw anyone who looked less like a princess than I do. I mean, I have really bad hair... and... a really big mouth and no breasts and feet that look like skis." And if this news wasn't bad enough, Mia's mom has started dating her algebra teacher, the paparazzi is showing up at school, and she's in a huge fight with her best friend, Lilly. How much more can this reluctant Cinderella handle?

Offbeat Mia will automatically win the heart of every teenage girl who's ever just wanted to fit in with as little fuss as possible. Debut author Meg Cabot's writing is silly and entertaining, with tons of pop culture references that will make teens feel right at home within her pages. This is a wonderfully wacky read. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly
Youthful actress Hathaway, who stars in the forthcoming (Aug. 3) Disney film version of Cabot's novel, reprises her role as the reluctant royal Mia Thermopolis on this perky audio adaptation. Hathaway convincingly voices every nuance of exasperation, humiliation and anxiety that Mia feels as a gangly, flat-chested high-school freshman facing some king-size changes in her life. Mia thinks things can't get much worse when her artist mother starts dating her algebra teacher. But her "normal" days as a stressed student are numbered when she learns that her father is the prince of a small European principality called Genovia and she is not only a princess, but is next in line for the throne. Soon, the whole school and all of Manhattan know about Mia's title, something her never-married parents had agreed to keep from her. She's faced with taking princess lessons from her authoritarian grandmother, putting up with a bodyguard and fighting off paparazzi and false friends. Contemporary phrasing and slang and Hathaway's comfortable mastery of both give this recording a kick that's sure to capture a teen audience. Ages 12-up. (June)simultaneously as a HarperCollins hardcover and a Listening Library audiobook, also read by Hathaway, on July 1. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 7-9-Insecure Mia Thermopolis, 14, discovers that she is actually Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo of Genovia. In her diary entries, which cover almost a month, she writes about going to a private school in New York City and living in Greenwich Village with her avant-garde artist mother. She fights with her best friend, struggles to pass algebra, and worries that she is the only one without a date for the Cultural Diversity Dance. On top of that, her divorced mother begins dating her teacher; her father visits and reveals that she is his heir; her intimidating grandmother gives her "Princess lessons"; and she has to contend with the embarrassment of having a bodyguard and reporters who follow her everywhere. Readers will relate to Mia's bubbly, chatty voice and enjoy the humor of this unlikely fairy tale. More accessible than, though perhaps not as clever as, Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging (HarperCollins, 2000), this funny, fast-paced book should appeal to hip young women, including reluctant readers.Debbie Stewart, Grand Rapids Public Library, MI Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Just imagine. One September morning you wake up, biggest freshman freak of Albert Einstein High School, five foot nine, flat-chested, and gifted (except in Algebra). By week's end, you've learned that you are the princess of Genovia and begin tortuous princess lessons with your Grandmere, the Queen. The potential for trauma is enormous! Every girl in America is likely familiar with the premise in a much-altered form as the storyline of the Disney feature film, starring Anne Hathaway, narrator of this splendid audiobook. However, in this reading, Hathaway shines in a way that the scanty screenplay didn't allow. As Cabot's Mia Thermopolis, she is smart, she is sassy, and she is the victim of a cruel universe, a girl who nevertheless manages to shine with a wry adolescent wit and abiding incredulity. Hathaway's charming impudence and high energy will thoroughly engage listeners from middle school through adulthood. T.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Gr. 7-10. Teens like novels written in diary format, and you can bet they'll be lining up for this hilarious story about a gawky 14-year-old New Yorker who learns she's a princess. Mia spends every available moment pouring her feelings into the journal her mother gave her: she writes during algebra class, in the ladies' room at the Plaza (much nicer than the one in Tavern on the Green), in her grandmother's limousine. She writes down her thoughts on everything--from algebra and her mother's love life to her jet-setting father's announcement that she's the heir to the throne of the principality of Genovia. Then, of course, she records Grandmother's efforts to turn her into a princess, her dealings with classmates, the press, and a bodyguard, and also her attraction to the most gorgeous guy in school and her attempts to be assertive and happy with her new life. She whines; she gloats; she cheers, worries, rants, and raves. Reading her journal is like reading a note from your best friend. Cabot has a fine grasp of teen dialect (and punctuation), an off-the-wall sense of humor that will have readers laughing out loud, and a knack for creating fully realized teen and adult characters that readers will miss when the story ends. Chris Sherman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

She's just a New York City girl living with her artist mom...

News Flash: Dad is prince of Genovia. (So that's why a limo meets her at the airport!)

Downer: Dad can't have any more kids. (So no heir to the throne.)

Shock of the Century: Like it or not, Mia Thermopolis is prime princess material.

Mia must take princess lessons from her dreaded grandmére, the dowager princess of Genovia, who thinks Mia has a thing or two to learn before she steps up to the throne.

Well, her father can lecture her until he's royal-blue in the face about her princessly duty—no way is she moving to Genovia and leaving Manhattan behind. But what's a girl to do when her name is Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo?

2001 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers (ALA), Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL) and 2001 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)

About the Author

Meg Cabot is the author of the best-selling, critically acclaimed, immensely popular Princess Diaries novels, as well as All-American Girl, Haunted, and two Regency novels, Nicola and the Viscount and Victoria and the Rogue. Meg was born in Bloomington, Indiana, and her childhood was spent in pursuit of air conditioning, of which there was little at the time in southern Indiana. A primary source proved to be the Monroe County Public Library, where Meg whiled away many hours, reading the complete works of Jane Austen, Judy Blume, and Barbara Cartland.

Armed with a fine arts degree from Indiana University, Meg moved to New York City, intent upon pursuing a career in freelance illustration. Illustrating, however, soon got in the way of Meg's truelove, writing, and so she abandoned it and got a job as the assistant manager of an undergraduate dormitory at New York University, writing on the weekends, and whenever her boss wasn't looking.

Meg lives in New York City with her husband, Benjamin, a poet, financial market writer and fellow Hoosier, and their one-eyed cat, Henrietta.

SYNOPSIS

"So, what I want to know is, if my dad's an actual prince, how come I have to learn algebra?" Mia ponders this, and much more, when she finds out that her father is prince of Genovia. Living with her cool artist mom in New York City, Mia can't imagine leaving to become princess in Genovia. But because her father can't have any more kids, she is the heir to the throne. Accepting her title means getting lessons on being a perfect princess and leaving Manhattan - will Mia eventually give in to her father and become Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo?

FROM THE CRITICS

Twist

If girrrrl heroines are what you want, the hilarious Princess Diaries has a winner in sassy Mia.

Buffalo News

A hilarious read.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

A hilarious read.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

It's got all the bubbly and frivolous pleasure of imported champagne, and readers will drink it in.

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 boy--the true friend Mia mostly takes for granted--turns 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. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. Read all 11 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING