Title: Princess in Pink
Author: Meg Cabot
Series: The Princess Diaries #5
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Chic lit, Easy reading
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Harper Teen
Year: 2003
5th sentence, 74th page: I didn’t know my generation was the Materialistic Generation.

Princess Mia is dreaming about the prom – and contending with a hotel workers’ strike – in the fifth, supremely hilarious episode of Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries. This time, Mia’s in the pink about the upcoming Albert Einstein H.S. prom, and she’s crossing her fingers that Michael will ask her to go. (They’re in love, so why wouldn’t he ask her, right?) But during Seven Minutes in Heaven at her b-day party, Mia learns that Michael is not the prom-going type. Good grief, what’s a princess to do?

To make matters worse, Grandmere has gotten a busboy fired due to a mishap with her pooch, Rommel, at a swanky restaurant, so when all of the city’s busboys go on strike, it causes a chain of events that result in Grandmere crashing at Mia’s mom’s place, her pal Lilly Moscovitz picking up a picket sign, and the prom being brought to a screeching halt.

Thankfully, staunch yet boy-wise Grandmere has a plan to change Michael’s mind and put everything back on track, making Mia the happiest “prom princess” on this side of the Atlantic – and readers more starry-eyed than Molly Ringwald in her prettiest pink frock.

I really wasn’t bothered by my prom. Actually, I thought it was kind of lame and didn’t really want to go. I went to the dress shops once, got annoyed and used a hand me down dress. But, for us, it was a compulsory experience, and my high school boyfriend, for whatever reason, actually wanted to go. Which is probably why I couldn’t quite understand Mia’s obsession with going to prom with Michael was, well, so obsessive. Having said that, I also didn’t quite understand why Michael was so completely against it and convinced that the entire thing is lame and pathetic. Maybe something about not being American?

The experiences of American teenagers is a completely foreign experience / idea to me, especially the idea of being in a school so big that you don’t know everybody (at least in your year). So it’s always fun to read about it in stories. And, tracing Mia’s thoughts as she tackles what is a very real experience for some, and princess lessons, and a psychotic Grandmere (and best friend) is just entertaining and enlightening. Even though I’m sure not every American teen has similar experiences…

Lily managed to almost make me blow my lid in this story too. A teenager who runs her own protests and causes a city-wide strike against inequality. You’d think that I like that, but she is a little too pushy and a little too dismissive of everyone else’s feelings – including Boris’. But, the part that I did love the most was even Mia was annoyed at her for this and actually spoke up. She might not yet be self-actualised, but she’s certainly on her way to being a little stronger and more independent.

Image source: Meg Cabot