The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries
Cabot, Meg

New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2000

Annotation: Imagine feeling like freak every day of your life because your hair doesn't do what you want it to, or the only kind of bra you could wear were band aids? What if the prettiest, most popular girl in school would give you a hard time because you were such an easy target? And now to top it off, what if you woke up one morning and found yourself to be heir to the throne of a country named Genovia? Mia Thermopolis did not think she could handle anymore pressure and tried to figure out a way to juggle it all when given no other choice. The first book in the hit series that made Meg Cabot a classic, The Princess Diaries, was a great book that made readers laugh hysterically while Mia fumbled through high school like most other freshmen girls.

Reason for nomination: While the stories were hilarious and humorous, Mia's story had brought forth a lot of interesting observations. She was very open with discussing issues, like racism, the environment, or dysfunctional families, that most people only wrote about in Realistic/Edgy novels and made it so that you could laugh and learn at the same time. You can't help but cheer for her in her sudden bouts of confidence against her best friend, Lily, and Lana, the meanest girl in school. When she realizes how Josh Ritcher uses her for his few minutes of fame and puts him in his place, readers are assured that fictional character Mia is going to make a great Queen to an imaginary country someday.

Genre: Humor