“It’s worse than the ’80s,” when the author’s work was first targeted, “because of the way it’s coming from government ,” Judy Blume said.Īn era in which girls and women were held in an information vacuum - about their own bodies! - seems dangerously close to being resurrected. The weightier issues it reflects, which had seemingly receded, are back at the forefront: overt antisemitism, the widespread curtailing of women’s reproductive rights, and a resurgence of book banning and censorship. This 53-year-old story is landing in theaters squarely in the middle of today’s culture wars. The God Margaret confides in is nondenominational as a preteen, she has agency and choice. But Margaret’s exploration of religion - her Jewish father and Christian mother encourage her to decide for herself - also drew the ire of the religious right. Right before Mia leaves for Genovia, the brother of her best friend, Lilly, and the boy she has been in love with forever, Michael, kisses her and professes his love for her.In the popular imagination, the book is mostly concerned with the changing body and the rites of puberty, and that’s what made it controversial.

By the end of the novel, Michael and Mia are officially in love. Mia also feels very self-conscious about her looks and her abilities when she compares herself to Michael and her other friends. Mia constantly worries about Michael, but she is also worrying about how to break up without her existing boyfriend, Kenny, without hurting him. Grandmere also dispenses some romantic advice on how Mia should handle Michael and other boys in order to win them over. Grandmere is providing princess lessons to Mia to teach her how to be a proper royal. One of the biggest issues Mia has to deal with is her grandmother, Grandmere.

Mia struggles with juggling her different duties as a royal person, such as her princess lessons with Grandmere, along with the things she wants to do as a regular teenager. The story follows the main character, Amelia 'Mia' Thermopolis, as she finishes her winter term at school and prepare to make her first official visit to Genovia an as a princess. Princess in Love is a novel in the Princess Diaries' series by author Meg Cabot.

Princess in Love by Meg Cabot