princess for a day [or three]

I can’t actually remember when I first started reading Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series. I think it was right before the first Disney movie came out, because I remember thinking, “Ha! Julie Andrews’s benevolent Granny is so not Mia’s Grandmere,” after I saw the film. So, if the movie came out in 2001, I must have read the first book when I was in 10th grade (?). Maybe that is why I still feel so attached to this series, even after I told myself I was losing interest because the high school trauma drama was getting tedious. I was wrong. I’ll admit it. Princess Mia still rocks!

After a very long break from the series, I came back to it this week. Though I read most of the books as soon as they were released, I stopped reading the series after book VII, Princess in Training, was published. But I was feeling nostalgic and decided to get through the last three before the final book, Forever Princess, comes out (I think part of that nostalgia has to do with my return to blogging, the diary novel just seemed to fit my mood).

So this is my one-minute summary of Party Princess, Princess on the Brink, and Princess Mia… (okay, maybe more than a minute):

Party Princess

Mia’s latest social hiccup:

a) Find the cash to make up for having spent the senior class’s commencement ceremony fund to rent Alice Tully Hall on high-tech recycling bins for AEHS.

b) Prove to her boyfriend Michael that she can be a party girl (despite evidence to the contrary)

c) Survive her grandmother’s latest scheme: an original musical called Braid!

The lyrics to Braid!, Mia’s letters to Dr. Carl Jung, and the introduction of The Guy Who Hates It When The Put Corn In The Chili kept me laughing aloud.

Princess on the Brink

Mia has a calling, she’s a writer… but her Intro to Creative Writing teacher disagrees.

Lilly wants Mia to run for student body president. Again. And she’s using scare tactics to get AEHS’s apathetic freshman to vote in her favor – even if she is the only one running.

Michael loves Mia, but he has to prove his love like Aragorn because the elf king (ie. Mia’s dad) doesn’t approve of him…. Except he has to go to Japan to do it!

Highlights: Mia’s “Precious Gift”. hehehe!

Princess Mia

(I really like the new cover design)

Mia and Michael are no more, Lilly is giving her the cold shoulder, and J.P. is being very nice about it all.

I have to say, this may be my favorite in the series. Going through a very believable emotional crisis, this volume shows a Mia who is finally able to stand on her own and find herself (without either of the Moscovitz’s help). It’s not always easy, and sixteen-year-old Mia already has a lot to deal with what with being a princess and all, but it’s the kind of lesson that a princess-in-training needs.

Well, now that I’m done with this series (for the moment), I can get back to some of my other reads… though it was a welcome break from all the Jungian theory I’ve had to read lately (ironic that Mia was reading up on Jung too).

Tags: meg cabot, princess mia, the princess diaries, ya chick lit