This one was a disappointment to me. I picked it because of the seasonal theme, and I liked the cover, but it was not what I expected. I was expecting a story involving Mia from The Princess Diaries in some type of holiday tale but instead it was various characters from the books giving their takes on how different winter holidays are celebrated around the world, just skimming the background of the historical roots of the holidays and a couple of recipes and a couple of crafts. I could have got that background info and the other stuff from lots of other sources-- I would have much rather had something unique from Ms. Cabot relating to her original series. ( )

This was a really cute book. It would have been better if I was still in my Princess Diary phase but it was a quick read. There were sections on different holiday customs around the world (I would take them with a grain of salt, however.) I would recommend this book to anyone has read or is reading the Princess Diary series. ( )

Cabot, M. (2005). Holiday Princess. New York: HarperCollins.

Grade Levels: 6-8

Category: Fiction

Read-Alouds: (Introduction); pp. 3 (A note from her Royal Highness Princess Mia); pp. 143 (A note from her Royal Highness Princess Mia)

Summary: The Princess, also known as Mia was receiving lessons on how to organize the holidays. Mia learned about holiday cards, presents, apparel, traditions, and festivities. Throughout the book Mia talks about how Christmas is celebrated differently throughout the world. Not only did people celebrate Christmas differently but they also had different traditions and festivities when they celebrated the New Year.

Themes: One theme of this book was traditions and how Mia’s grandmother thought that traditions were an important part of families and society. Students could discuss the different traditions their families would do. Another theme is culture because the book discussed Jewish traditions like the Hanukkah and the Chinese New Year. Students could learn a lot about how different people celebrate the holidays. A festivity is another theme discussed in this book. The way Hanukkah is celebrated by playing Dreidel.

Discussion Questions: What were the lessons that Mia learned about the holidays?
How does Mia explain Kwanzaa?
Talk about the history of the Solstice, the Pagan past?

Reader Response: I thought this was a good book. I thought it was interesting how it discussed family traditions celebrated during the holidays. I liked the pictures that described the ways to be organized during the holidays. I also liked the information the story gave about the ways the holidays were celebrated and the traditions that are kept. I think students even younger students could learn a lot from this book about culture. I even learned about the different ways people celebrate holidays around the world. I thought this book was a good way to talk about how Mia was learning to handle the holidays in New York and in Genovia.

another of the magazine-y books

Cute little addition to the series. I love these books! ( )