July 9, 2001
Youthful actress Hathaway, who stars in the forthcoming (Aug. 3) Disney film version of Cabot's novel, reprises her role as the reluctant royal Mia Thermopolis on this perky audio adaptation. Hathaway convincingly voices every nuance of exasperation, humiliation and anxiety that Mia feels as a gangly, flat-chested high-school freshman facing some king-size changes in her life. Mia thinks things can't get much worse when her artist mother starts dating her algebra teacher. But her "normal" days as a stressed student are numbered when she learns that her father is the prince of a small European principality called Genovia and she is not only a princess, but is next in line for the throne. Soon, the whole school—and all of Manhattan—know about Mia's title, something her never-married parents had agreed to keep from her. She's faced with taking princess lessons from her authoritarian grandmother, putting up with a bodyguard and fighting off paparazzi and false friends. Contemporary phrasing and slang—and Hathaway's comfortable mastery of both—give this recording a kick that's sure to capture a teen audience. Ages 12-up. (June)FYI:A sequel,
Princess in the Spotlight, was released simultaneously as a HarperCollins hardcover and a Listening Library audiobook, also read by Hathaway, on July 1.
July 2, 2001
A teenager living in modern-day Greenwich Village in New York City discovers that she is now the heir apparent to the throne in a European country, in this novel, soon to be a motion picture starring Julie Andrews. Ages 12-up.
October 30, 2000
"This is how NOT a princess I am. I am so NOT a princess that when my dad started telling me I was one, I totally started crying." Raised in a Greenwich Village loft in New York City by her flaky-but-loving artist mother, ninth grader Mia Thermopolis is shocked to learn from her father that she is now the heir apparent to Genovia, the tiny European kingdom he rules. Her paternal grandmother further disrupts Mia's life when she comes to town to mold the girl into a proper royal. Cabot's debut children's novel is essentially a classic makeover tale souped up on imperial steroids: a better haircut and an improved wardrobe garner Mia the attention of a hitherto unattainable boy. (Of course this boy isn't all he appears to be, and another boyDthe true friend Mia mostly takes for grantedDturns out to be Mr. Right.) A running gag involving sexual harassment (including a foot fetishist obsessed with Mia's best friend Lilly Moscovitz and a sidewalk groper dubbed the "Blind Guy") is more creepy than funny, and the portrayal of the self-conscious pseudo-zaniness of downtown life is over the top (Lilly's parents, both psychoanalysts, get Rolfed, practice t'ai chi and attend benefits for "the homosexual children of survivors of the Holocaust"). Though Mia's loopy narration has its charms and princess stories can be irresistible, a slapstick cartoonishness prevails here. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) FYI: Plans are in the works for a Disney film to be directed by Garry Marshall and starring Julie Andrews as the grandmother.