The Princess Diaries is the ultimate teen fantasy novel. Barely a step above the Girl with the Silver Eyes, as far as kids reading something which makes them hope for some sort of magic to come and save them from their pitiable existence.
Mia, the protagonist and princess, is still so young that the thought of a boy sticking his tongue in her mouth is GROSS! Yet old enough to almost want that to happen. Just one step out of dolls, but still wearing tights and sneakers and not caring about her appearance, she gets Cinderellaed when her dad turns up and tells her he’s a prince. Seems the smartypants girl wasn’t really paying attention all those years she visited daddy in the weird little country of Genovia. Which makes the weird girl with the bad hair a princess. Then, her own fairy godmother in the form of her grandmother shows up, trains her to act like a lady and makes her pretty with makeup, a haircut and clothes.
The newly dressed princess, now attractive to her prince charming, high school heart throb Josh Richter, who kisses her in front of the castle, her fancy high school, only to turn back into a frog. Mia, too dumb to notice her dad was a prince for 15 years, is astute enough to understand instantly that prince charming is a scoundrel and using her to get press and attention and dumps him on the stairs. Prince Charming destroyed, who is there to save her but the Boy Next Door, her very own best-friends-big-brother, Michael Moscovitz
It’s all a bit happily ever after. The popular people are actually mean, and get destroyed socially, and the unpopular people: Mia, her friend Lilly, the chubby Tina, the dorky Michael, all get to win out in the end.
How sweet.
It is actually sweet, and not terribly written, either, which is kind of nice. It’s also kind of nice to see a teen book where the teenager has some sense of self, so that even when invited to be with the popular crowd, Mia doesn’t instantly throw over her unpopular friends (see The Clique and Gossip Girl). Instead she stands by and defends them, making her a worthy hero of anyone, not just teenagers.
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