"Every Teen's Best Friends' Story"

New York Times Best Selling Author Meg Cabot's novel The Princess Diaries is a coming of age story about a girl who goes to sleep one day absolutely plain and normal, and wakes up the next day the only heir to a small European principality. Cabot breathes life into this diary structured novel -- her characters seem to jump off each page, and into the reader's heart.

Her main character Mia is a fourteen year old girl living in New York with her artisan mother and her overweight cat Louie. Her best friend Lilly has been there for her since kindergarten, and her biggest worry is her F in Algebra. Like any teenager, she desperately wants to be popular and date the cutest boy in school, Josh Richter, but her bubble bursts the moment she finds out her father has testicular cancer and she is the only heir to the Genovian throne.

Following Mia's daily adverntures in her diary permits the reader to emphasize with not only the ups and down of daily teen life but also the good and bad that can happen.

Cabot's characters could each be the reader's best friends. Her writing style is simple, but the message is beautiful -- it does not matter who you are, as long as you have family and friends that will always be around to help you when you need it. Meg Cabot is a wonderful author for all ages, and her writing makes reading fun again!

Reviewed by Gwen M. Reyes
Posted January 22, 2003