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The Princess Diaries

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This article is about the novels. For the 2001 film, see The Princess Diaries (film).

The Princess Diaries is a series of epistolary young adult novels written by Meg Cabot, and is also the title of the first volume, published in 2000.

Meg Cabot quotes the series' inspiration on her website stating: "I was inspired to write The Princess Diaries when my mom, after the death of my father, began dating one of my teachers; they later went on to get married just as Mia’s mom does in the book! I have always had a 'thing' for princesses (my parents used to joke that when I was smaller, I did a lot of insisting that my 'real' parents, the king and queen, were going to come get me soon, and that everyone had better start being a LOT nicer to me) so I stuck a princess in the book just for kicks... and VOILÀ! The Princess Diaries was born."[1]

The books are noted for containing many popular culture references, which include singers, movies, and fads in modern culture. Many critics[who?] have taken unkindly to this form of storytelling. In response, Cabot added an English teacher in the book, Princess in Training, who criticizes Mia's writing, telling her that it relies too much on "slick pop culture references." By the final novel, this has allowed Mia to progress and grow as a person.

The latest book in the series, The Princess Diaries, Volume XI: Royal Wedding was published in 2015. A spin-off series for tweens featuring Mia's half-sister, From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess was released in May 2015.

Series description

Plot Summaries have been moved to their individual volume pages.

The story of Mia Thermopolis' adolescent turmoil as an average teenager and a princess of royal descent is chronicled in her on-going journal, where she explores topics of teenage angst, love, and betrayal through an opinionated eye.

Setting

Genovia
'The Princess Diaries' location
Flag of Genovia
Created byMeg Cabot
GenreYoung adult fiction
In-universe information
Other name(s)Principality of Genovia
TypeParliamentary Monarchy
Ethnic group(s)French, Italian, Germans
LocationsPyrus (capital)
New Pyrus (largest city)
Population64,486
MottoThe whole body works
AnthemGenovia, the land I call my home
Language(s)English and French
CurrencyGenoves (LKM)

The series is set in the Manhattan borough of New York City (although the first film is set in San Francisco). Some books take place in Genovia, a fictional European country. The Genovia depicted in the films differs significantly from the Genovia described in the books. In the books, Genovia is referred to as a principality between France and Italy that is ruled by Mia's father, Prince Philippe Renaldi, similar to the real life Monaco. In the movies, Genovia is located between France and Spain, similar to real life Andorra and is a kingdom ruled by Mia's Grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi.

Characters

Mia Thermopolis

Main article: Mia Thermopolis

Mia is the protagonist. Her official name is Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldi.

She is the daughter of Helen Thermopolis and Philippe Renaldi, and the princess and heir to the throne of Genovia, a small country in Europe located between France and Italy. Having lived most of her life in Greenwich Village, Mia attends Albert Einstein High School with her few close friends (including her best friends, Lilly Moscovitz and Tina Hakim-Baba). Her special talent is writing, and she chronicles the main aspects of her life in various personal diaries. She prefers being called Mia, although her best friend, Lilly Moscovitz often calls her BL (Baby Licker), POG (Princess Of Genovia), or PIT (Princess In Training).

Mia is known for her sarcastic and un-girly personality, her flat-chest, 5 ft. 9 in. height, weird hair, and extremely large feet. She also has a tendency to over-analyze things and worry too much. Mia develops an interest for writing during the series. During Forever Princess, Mia writes and publishes her own novel called Ransom My Heart, a historical romance set in England in the year 1291. She tries to use her fame to raise awareness for causes, and makes donations to Greenpeace, with the money her father pays her to take "princess lessons" from her grandmother.

She has been in love with Michael Moscovitz, Lilly's older brother, since she was in 1st grade and he was in 4th, when he brought a school project of Lilly's to their classroom. Lilly knows but doesn't really know how to respond, Mia admits her feelings to Michael in Princess in Love and to her delight, he reciprocates. Due to their age difference, however, their relationship becomes a bit strained.

In book eight, Princess on the Brink, Mia finds out Michael is moving to Japan to develop his prototype for a robot arm that would allow doctors to perform open heart surgery, an invention he later reveals was spurred by his desire to prove he was "worthy of dating a princess". In an attempt to keep him in the city, Mia proposes sex but is upset to find out that Michael already lost his virginity to Judith Gershner, a former classmate. Mia, behaving immaturely as she is angry and heartbroken, flings back the snowflake necklace that Michael gave her on her fifteenth birthday in Princess In Pink, signifying that their relationship is over. Mia, however, quickly regrets the decision. Michael is also quite heart-broken about it.

Also in book eight, Lilly is dumped by her boyfriend J.P., who quickly makes a play for Mia. Mia accidentally kisses J.P., which was witnessed by Lilly and Michael, which left him even more heart broken. As a result, Lilly refused to speak to Mia and they stopped being friends despite Mia's repeated attempts to regain Lilly's good graces. The two finally make up in Forever Princess.

In the ninth book, Princess Mia, Mia confides in her therapist, Dr. Knutz, about feeling inferior to Michael, whom she expected to dump her for someone better and admits that she overreacted about Judith in order to dump Michael first. She attempts to salvage her romantic relationship with Michael; he refuses, but they become friends again. Michael is hinted to have been abstinent during his tenure in Japan and later returns to New York as a multi-millionaire in Forever Princess.

Despite the fact that she has a boyfriend, Mia remains in love with Michael and toward the end of the final book, Forever Princess, Michael kisses Mia and tells her that he never stopped loving her. Mia breaks up with J.P., who was only using her to get attention from the media to further his playwriting career. Michael and Mia finally reunite and it is hinted that he becomes her royal consort in the future.

Mia is now currently at Sarah Lawrence College and is done with high school. Mia is very happy with Michael, and is friends with all her "true friends" by the end of the series.

Clarisse Marie Grimaldi Renaldi

Clarisse Marie was formally known as the Dowager Princess Clarisse Marie Grimaldi Renaldi.

Clarisse is the dowager princess of Genovia and Mia's paternal grandmother. Mia refers to her as "Grand-mère" (French for "Grandmother"). As a young woman, she married Prince Rupert Renaldi and had two sons. She habitually omits Mia's mother's surname "Thermopolis" from her granddaughter's lengthy list of names and titles, much to Mia's annoyance. She speaks French most of the time, but she can also speak English. She is almost always accompanied by her miniature poodle, Rommel, who is notable for having a severe case of OCD that causes him to lick his own fur off. She smokes often and enjoys drinking sidecars. She is not hesitant about lying or manipulating others in order to get her own way.

She and Mia don't see eye to eye: Clarisse is concerned with attracting publicity to Genovia and ensuring Mia does not embarrass her country while Mia prefers to focus on politics. Though she and Mia butt heads often, she does care for her granddaughter and gives her advice about love and relationships that Mia takes with a grain of salt due to her grandmother's cold nature. For example, when Clarisse was married to the king of Genovia, she led him to believe that she was only interested in his status and money and never once said "I love you", in order to keep her husband on his toes. Mia also mentions that her father is terrified of his mother because she would lock him in the palace dungeons whenever he misbehaved (although when she informs him that he gives the appearance of being a little bit scared of Clarisse in Princess in the Spotlight, her father replies that he is not scared of his mother and that she really isn't as bad as Mia thinks; in his view, Clarisse "just needs proper handling").

While in New York to give Mia her princess lessons, the dowager princess resided in the Plaza Hotel, and was dissatisfied with other quality luxury hotels she was placed in during Princess On the Brink, when the Plaza was being remodeled.

Lilly Moscovitz

Mia's best friend since kindergarten, Lilly is a highly intelligent and opinionated person who has her own public-access television show, titled Lilly Tells It Like It Is, in which she discusses political and social issues. By the end of the series, her TV show is picked up by a network and is apparently very popular in South Korea.

Mia admires Lilly's bravery and unwillingness to be pushed around by others though Lilly knows her insensitivity and forceful personality can cause her to be disliked. Mia and Lilly often enjoy discussing popular culture but Lilly's strong stances, however, cause her and Mia to clash, especially when Mia feels Lilly is becoming too critical of her. Yet, Lilly's blunt attitude is what often keeps Mia from over-analyzing things, such as her relationship with Michael, Lilly's older brother. Mia was initially afraid to share her crush on Michael with Lilly, but in fact, Lilly was one of the conspirators who helped Mia and Michael get together in Princess in Love.

Lilly is not considered to be very pretty; Mia often describes her face as being "squashed in like a pug's". Lilly does however have a well-developed figure which earns her several romantic suitors including Boris Pelkowski, Mia's cousin Hank, Jangbu, J.P. Reynolds, and Kenny Showalter.

Boris Pelkowski was Lilly's first boyfriend but the relationship ended when she cheated on him in Princess in Pink with an immigrant busboy Jangbu. In Party Princess, Lilly hooks up with J.P. Reynolds but in Princess On the Brink, Lilly is dumped by him because he never loved her. Lilly becomes angry at Mia when she finds out that Mia kissed J.P. and refuses to speak to her any more, even starting a website called ihatemiathermopolis.com. Lilly is cold to Mia's attempts to make up but when she finds out that Mia is planning to lose her virginity to J.P., Lilly interferes and tells her that she and J.P. had sex (J.P. had lied about being a virgin to Mia) and his plans to use Mia's fame to his own advantage. Lilly also helps indirectly in the patching up of Mia and her brother Michael's relationship. The girls make up and become best friends again.

Michael Moscovitz

Mia's main love interest throughout the series.

Mia initially thinks she is in love with popular jock Josh Richter, but by the second book, she acknowledges her feelings and states that she's been in love with Michael Moscovitz since the day he came over to give Lilly a school project when they were in the first grade and he was in the fourth. From the end of the first book to the third, Mia has an unrequited crush on Michael, feelings which he finally returns in Princess in Love. Their relationship continues through Mia's sophomore year and Michael's first years at Columbia University but their relationship becomes slightly strained when Michael tells Mia he would like to have sex while Mia would prefer to wait until her prom night. Michael respects Mia's wishes but when Michael gets an offer to move to Japan, he believe it would be easier for their relationship as he is "tired of taking cold showers". Mia proposes sex in order to keep him from leaving but is upset to find out that he slept with Judith Gershner before discovering her love for him and the two break up. Michael believes Mia is overreacting and attempts to reconcile with her before leaving for Japan but is hurt to find her sharing a kiss with J.P. Mia attempts to reunite and work out the distance situation but Michael decides that it is best they remain "just friends" and he still emails Mia regularly. When Michael returns from Japan after an absence of almost two years, he flirts with Mia during her interview for the school paper. Mia notices that Michael still looks incredibly hot. The two eventually kiss, despite Mia having a boyfriend, and Michael declares that he still loves Mia and will wait for her. They reunited on Mia's prom night and they have sex.

Michael has brown eyes and thick, dark hair and is tall. He is extremely handsome, nice, funny, smart, and manly, despite staying cooped up writing songs or on his computer the whole day. Michael is romantic and talented. Though he often clashes with his younger sister, Michael and Lilly are in fact close siblings and friends. He used to have his own webzine called Crackhead but had to disband it after an editorial that stated the merits of Linux over Windows, which caused a loss in advertisers and funds. Shortly after this, Michael decided to start a band called Skinner Box (name suggested by Mia), which refers to an experiment by the behavioural psychologist B. F. Skinner into proving the existence of a 'conditioned response', with the use of a specially designed box that held animals (such as rats and monkeys, in the experiment) until release, which could only be activated by pressing a lever. He started it with a few friends, including Boris Pelkowski.

Mia insists that it's common knowledge that he's the third best-looking guy at AEHS after Josh Richter and Justin Baxendale and described his nose as aquiline, mouth as "eminently kissable" and neck as aromatic due to an intoxicating blend of Tide from his shirt collar, his Gillette shaving foam and Ivory soap and a special Michael smell makes it the best smell in the world. Michael loves Mia just as she is, though her neurotic behavior and insecurity can be frustrating. In fact, Michael is the one who often feels insecure in their relationship because he knows Clarisse Marie Renaldi does not think he is an appropriate consort and all the gossip magazines would much rather prefer to see Mia date a fellow royal or celebrity like James Franco or as Mia's other grandmother, Mamaw suggests Zac Efron from High School Musical. Due to this, Michael believes moving to Japan and developing his robotic arm would finally prove to the world that he is, in fact, worthy of dating a princess. Michael returns to New York a multi-millionaire and the president/owner of his own robotics company, Pavlov Robotics, named after his dog. Michael donates a robot arm to Genovia from his company for free even though the waiting list is long, helping Mia's father win the election. Mia realizes that she is still in love with Michael, but tries to convince herself otherwise. When she and Michael kiss on a coach ride, however, she writes, "I can't do this to J.P. I just can't. Oh my God, though, I love Michael so much." When J.P. and Mia split due to J.P using her and lying to her, she and Michael reunite, spending the night together.

Secondary characters

  • Lars van der Hooten: Mia's very protective bodyguard. He voices his mind in a way that is annoying when he thinks Mia is being particularly ridiculous, but goes along with her schemes anyway. He also turns a blind eye to Mia and Michael when they make out, for which Mia is grateful. He gets on very well with Michael (especially in the first book when Lars seems to know that Michael likes Mia), never offers any opinion on Lilly, and becomes friends with Tina's bodyguard, Wahim. Lars also likes Mia's French teacher Mademoiselle Klein. He is known to be a 'big softie' deep down inside.
  • Tina Hakim Baba: A current student at Albert Einstein, Tina is the daughter of a Saudi Arabian oil sheik and a British former supermodel. She is referred to as a freak by the other students. Because of her father's status, she has to have the protection of a bodyguard, Wahim, who isolates her from the other students until Mia sits with her after a fight with Lilly in the first novel. All three girls quickly develop a solid friendship, and Tina eventually uses her generous weekly allowance to support Lilly's Public-access television show. She first goes out with Dave Farouq-El-Abar from another school, 'Trinity', and, after Dave breaks up with her, later dates Boris Pelkowski after Lilly breaks his heart. After Mia and Lilly's estrangement at the end of the eighth novel, Mia comes to see Tina as her best friend. Tina constantly reads romance novels, making Mia consider her an expert in romance. Though prone to imaginative flights of fancy and often seen as a little silly, Tina can be extremely acute about both academic and social matters. Tina is very loyal to Mia, who consults her for sensitive advice rather than the harsher Lilly. Tina also believes that she must remain pure because she dreams that one day she will marry Prince William of Wales and to do so she must remain a virgin. Despite this, she confesses to having sex with Boris in Forever Princess.She later becomes a medical student in NYU New York University.She and Boris break up in the eleventh because Tina suspects him of having an affair. But later in the novel Boris proves the photos of him with another girl were photoshoped and they get back together.
  • Helen Thermopolis: Mia's mother. She has a career as an artist and spends most of her time in her studio, and becomes pregnant with Frank's son and Mia's half brother Rocky in the second book. According to Mia, she is very pretty and her neck smells of Dove (soap), turpentine and coffee, but according to Mia's dad her neck smells of freesias . She clearly wants the best for her daughter and is very carefree.
  • Frank Gianini: Mia's algebra and homeroom teacher. He dates her mother, Helen, and marries her when she becomes pregnant with Mia's half-brother, Rocky. He plays the drums, which annoys the neighbors. He is unfazed by his stepdaughter's fame, and treats her the same as every other student during class, and also "has a thing about cell-phone usage during class time" (as Lana finds out the hard way in Princess in Waiting). Mia appreciates his after-school algebra review sessions. Though their relationship begins awkwardly, Mia and Mr. G seem to get on well after the seventh installment.
  • John Paul "J.P." Reynolds Abernathy IV: Formerly known as "The Guy Who Hates It When They Put Corn In the Chili," J.P. meets Mia via the school musical written by Grandmère. Mia asks him to sit with the rest of her friends in "Party Princess." Surprisingly cute and talented, he becomes one of Mia's friends. In the seventh book, Lilly and J.P. become a couple. J.P. is first described as having "broad shoulders, floppy brown hair, and surprisingly blue eyes," though the eighth and ninth novels state that Mia and J.P. look good together because they are both so "tall and blond." J.P. is Mia's chemistry partner in book eight. In book nine, J.P and Mia go to watch Beauty and the Beast on Broadway after the fateful events of the previous few days, and they both promise to forget both of the Moscovitzes, at least for the duration of the musical. They go to the musical as friends but that soon changes when J.P. eventually confesses his love for Mia and they become a couple. They break up in the last book when Mia finds out about the lies he had told her and the true reason he went out with her, but they attempt to remain friends, even though J.P. is revealed as a jerk. Also, Mia realized that she still has feelings for Michael despite her dating J.P. Right after they break up J.P. decides to go out with another girl named Stacey Cheeseman, when Mia tells him she thinks Stacey has a crush on J.P.
  • Boris Pelkowski: A Russian violin virtuoso, and Lilly's boyfriend until book five. His habits include tucking his sweater into his pants, breathing through his mouth, and playing the violin in Gifted and Talented Class/program, when everyone else wants him to be quiet. After Lilly dumps him, he starts dating Tina Hakim Baba. During the summer before their sophomore year, he lifts weights, gets laser eye surgery and becomes (by Mia's standards) a hottie. Boris is a "say it like it is or say nothing at all" sort of guy. In the ninth installment, it appears that Boris is in contact with Michael (they were in Michael's band together and became friends), as Boris implores Mia to respond to Michael's emails so that he won't think she's "forgotten" about him. In the eleventh book hecomes a Popstar, Boris P., and has fans called Borrettes. He breaks up with Tina because she found photos of him with another girl. but they get back together when he explains that the photos were photo-shopped.
  • Josh Richter: Lana Weinberger's boyfriend till the fifth book. He is on the crew team and is co-valedictorian. Mia once described him as the most attractive boy in school; he is very tall and muscular and has "electric" blue eyes. At the end of the first book, Josh Richter takes Mia to the "Cultural Diversity Dance", where he kisses her on the entrance steps of her school. Realizing that he used her to enter the media spotlight, Mia dislikes him afterwards and tries to avoid him, even though this is difficult because of their adjacent lockers.
  • Lana Weinberger: A popular junior cheerleader with long blonde hair, a peaches-and-cream complexion, baby blue eyes and a voluptuous figure. She dates Josh Richter from the start of the series until the summer break between the fifth and sixth books when they split up due to the four-mile distance between them and his departure for college. Lana's younger sister, Gretchen, starts at AEHS in volume eight and has a very similar personality. Lana is very spiteful towards Mia until a major shift in the ninth novel, when Lana offers the olive branch because Lilly is no longer a part of Mia's social circle. Lana and Mia become good friends, with Mia noting that Lana is actually a nice but misunderstood person, although there is still some awkwardness between them. At the start, Lana is consistently teasing Mia and making her angry which makes her stomp on Lana's phone in the third book. Mia also rips out Lana's clip-on braid in the sixth book after Lana makes a mean remark to new student Perin Thomas in book six. Lana likes calling Mia a geek even though they are now good friends.
  • Shameeka Taylor: One of Mia's friends, she has an overprotective father. After she joins the cheerleading team, Lana claims that the African American Shameeka was put on the team to "fill our freak quota". Nevertheless, Shameeka becomes quite popular, apparently leaving Mia's group in books seven and eight while remaining on friendly terms, but returns in book nine when Lana and Trisha become friends with them. She is athletic and the most attractive of Mia's friends, and, according to Mia, is so tall she can wrap both ankles round her head. She is elegant yet sensible, and quite headstrong, as she joins the cheerleaders because she is tired of letting the pretty cheerleader, Lana Weinberger, push her around. She also knows a lot about make-up.
  • Ling Su Wong: An Asian American artist friend of Mia's with illegible "artist handwriting" which is very similar to "doctor handwriting". Mia thinks she is very pretty; in the first book, she is apparently asked out seven times. In book seven, she is the treasurer for Mia's school government until they go broke. She concentrates more on academic matters rather than things such as prom and dating. It's clearly stated in the book that Mia likes her despite all her nerdiness. In the tenth book, instead of going to the prom with a boy, she goes with another girl, Perin. It is implied that they are a couple by the end of the tenth book. She admires Mia's mother Helen, mainly because they are both talented artists.
  • Prince René of Italy: First seen in the fourth novel, René is Mia's distant cousin. Clarisse tries to fix them up, but fails because of their mutual lack of interest. He is described as devilishly handsome; Mia notes that he has a "impressing" six-pack, accentuated by the really tiny speedos he enjoys wearing on the beach. His exploits include playing strip-tennis with a government official's wife, playing strip bowling with Lilly and the other royals, entertaining topless sunbathers in the pool house, disappearing with a prime minister's eighteen-year-old daughter, and photo-copying his nether-region in the palace administration office. After being deposed from his ancestral palace, which is bought by a shoe designer, Rene resides at the Palais de Genovia. In the ninth installment, René impregnates Contessa Trevanni's niece, Bella, and they are suddenly married; although the circumstances sound unfavorable, their marriage seems happy. In the tenth book, Prince René runs against Mia's dad for Prime Minister of Genovia, but loses.
  • "Mamaw" Shirley Thermopolis and "Papaw" Thermopolis: Helen's mother and father from Indiana whom she constantly feuds with. Nevertheless, they keep in touch, and are seen in the second novel as perfect stereotypes of the "small-town" American lifestyle. Helen tries to contact them as little as possible, due to their disapproval of her decision to keep Mia and her liberal upbringing. The Thermopolis parents keep a hardware store in Versailles, Indiana.
  • Hank Thermopolis: Mia's cousin, son of Helen's sister Marie (whom Helen also doesn't get along with due to Marie being a Republican), who spent most of his life in Indiana with his grandparents. When they come to visit Helen and Mia in Manhattan, the apparently quite good looking Hank (which Mia never noticed as he is her cousin) disappears with Lilly Moscovitz. Mia thinks they are in love, but he merely confesses to Lilly his secret desire to become a model and Lilly helps him sign up with Elite Model Agency and land a contract with Calvin Klein. His Hoosier drawl then disappears. From then on, he stays in New York and becomes a famous underwear model.
  • Kenneth "Kenny" Showalter: Mia's first boyfriend. Kenny is good at biology and chemistry, and a fan of anime. He wants to discover a cure for cancer when he becomes older. It is hinted at that his feelings for Mia are still romantic even after they break up. In book six, he pretends to have a "perfect" girlfriend named Heather, but later admits that he invented her to make Mia jealous. Kenny later forms a much more requited and equal relationship with Lilly, who is more similar to him than Mia is. Kenny is, like Mia, tall, blond and skinny, and Mia thinks he is pretty cute, but finds the idea of kissing him revolting.
  • Perin Thomas: A student at AEHS. At first, Mia can't figure out whether Perin is a boy or a girl. She turns out to be a girl and becomes friends with Mia. She is again mistaken for a boy in Grandmère's musical, in which she is given a male role. Perin is a very nice person, as she asked if Mia was alright after Michael announces he is moving to Japan, and, though shocked by Mia's new haircut in book eight, says nothing about it. She is also surprisingly strong and well-mannered. In book ten, it is continually implied that Perin and Ling Su are romantically involved with each other, though this is not confirmed but in the eleventh book Perin and Ling Su become a couple and together run The Frank Gianini Community center.
  • Trisha Hayes: Introduced in the sixth book and also known as Trish; one of Lana's cronies who helps terrorize Mia, but later befriends her at Lana's whim. Trisha is, like Lana, a pretty, popular girl, and is mean to lots of other students, but Mr Harding, a Geometry teacher, once made her cry over her triangles.
  • Judith Gershner: A friend of Michael, whom Mia suspects of having romantic feelings for Michael. She later becomes the object of Mia and Michael's breakup at the end of book eight because she had sex with Michael in the third book but he did not tell Mia about it. She is also well known for being able to clone fruit flies.
  • Karen Martinez: An overly critical English teacher who continually demands more from Mia's writing, though this may be an excuse to personally pick on Mia. Tina thinks she is very pretty, compares her to Maggie Gyllenhaal, and often comments on her clothes, but turns against her after her B in English. Mia and J.P. decide that it is simply because she didn't like their writing style.
  • Rocky Thermopolis-Gianini: Mia's half-brother; the son of her mother, Helen, and her algebra teacher, Mr. Gianini. Mia is incredibly over-protective of him, so much that Helen seems to be irritated that Mia thinks her mother is incapable of raising her second child. Lilly has also expressed that she thinks Mia is over-protective of him, repeatedly calling her a baby-licker in book six. Rocky is very cute but slightly overweight.
  • Sebastiano Grimaldi: Mia's second cousin, and second in line to the throne of Genovia after Mia. He is an up-and-coming fashion designer who designs some of Mia's gowns, and often has trouble pronouncing multi syllable words (example: "butt" instead of "butter"). He once took photos of Mia trying on dresses, but apologises by making her a nice dress for the Non-denominational Winter Dance, which turns out to be the best night of Mia's life. In the tenth book, it was revealed that he became a famous fashion designer and even had a line of jeans in Walmart.
  • Ruth and Morty Moscovitz: Michael and Lilly's parents. They are both psychoanalysts. They separate in book seven, but begin to rekindle their relationship in book eight. As shown in the seventh installment, they tend to focus too much on their own lives and concerns. When they do broach sensitive subjects with their children, they usually psychoanalyze them as well, a habit that has a very bad effect on Lilly. Michael, who is more perceptive, avoids their attention by keeping more to himself. Lilly has inherited her intelligence and hobby of analyzing people from them.

Volumes

Illustrated by Chelsey McLaren:

  • Princess Lessons, March 2003
  • Perfect Princess, March 2004
  • Holiday Princess, November 2005

Errata

On April 6, 2006, Cabot announced a mistake on the back cover of her new book, Party Princess. In New Zealand and Australia, the picture on the back features Georgia Byng instead of Cabot. She said, "Don't worry. The copies of Princess Diaries 7 with Georgia Byng's picture on the back were pulled from shops, and swapped for copies of the book with the correct author's photo (mine) on the back."

In December 2006, Cabot announced that a mistake had been made in the front cover summary of Valentine Princess. Since the book chronicles Mia glancing at her old diaries, the characters Boris and Tina were not dating, rather Boris and Lilly. On the book flap, however, it says Boris and Tina are a couple. Cabot has announced that this has been fixed by the publishing company. Tina was dating Dave Farouq El-Abar at the time of books one and two.

In the tenth book (Forever Princess) Mia is writing a novel for her senior project, though she keeps it a secret from everyone but Michael, until the end of the book. At the end however she reveals this to Tina and J.P. Tina reads it instantly and thinks it is about Mia and Michael; J.P. doesn't read it and this upsets Mia, which is part of the reason they break up. At the end of the book, Mia receives an offer to get it published. (When Mia shares this news with Michael, they celebrate and this leads to a kiss, which proves that they are still in love.) Meg Cabot published "Mia's" book Ransom My Heart that can be bought in bookstores under the author name Princess of Genovia Mia Thermopolis.

Awards and nominations

Adaptations

In 2001 and 2004 respectively, two films based on the novels were produced by Walt Disney Pictures, The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. Cabot has thanked the films many times in interviews and on her website because she believes that they helped boost her book sales, as well as making her the success that she is today.

In May 2006, The Harvard Crimson released reports that 19-year-old author Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarised passages from Cabot's Princess Diaries series, and other books, to place in her novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. Viswanathan's novels were subsequently pulled from the shelves.[10]

Meta-References

  • Mia makes many references to "the movie", which in the book is supposed to be a movie made about her life. She refers to things that relate to the real movie, for example: her dead dad, Grandmere being NICE, and breaking up with Michael in the sequel (which she thought would never happen). Lilly complains that in the movie, the portrayal of her is mean and untrue, and Tina Hakim Baba was not allowed to be in it as her overprotective father forbade it for security reasons.
  • Mia also makes references to the other Princess books: in the fourth book, Mia says that there are already three or four unofficial biographies out there, and that one made the bestseller list for a few seconds. The original The Princess Diaries novel did make the bestseller list.
  • The eighth novel mentions Samantha Madison and Jessica Mastriani, two heroines from other Meg Cabot books (All-American Girl and 1-800-Where-R-You, respectively).

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ The Princess Diaries, Vol I, Meg Cabot
  2. ^ a b FAQS Meg Cabot Website.
  3. ^ a b "Meg Cabot Blog". Retrieved 2014-08-01.
  4. ^ "ALA |2001 Best Books for Young Adults" Archived August 22, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "ALA |2001 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers" Archived June 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "The Princess Diaries, Volume I" Archived January 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Young Adults' Choices for 2002" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-02-01.
  8. ^ "Volunteer State Book Award Winners 1978–present" Archived June 22, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Past Winners of the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award" Archived October 2, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "‘Opal’ Similar to More Books", Paras D. Bhayani and David Zhou, The Harvard Crimson, May 2, 2006

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