To tell the truth, my favorite books are all found in the children's and young adult sections of the library. J.K. Rowling, L.M. Montgomery, Roald Dahl, Madeleine L'Engle: the list goes on and on. Even now I'm still finding children's and young adult authors to love. One of my favorite discoveries from the last few years is Meg Cabot.
Cabot is best known for her young adult series The Princess Diaries, which follows a funny, engaging, insecure teenager in New York who discovers that she is actually the princess of a small principality in Europe. Despite the fairy-tale nature of the conceit, the books are down-to-earth and the characters relatable and real.
I've read a smattering of her young adult books and nearly all of her adult novels since I first found The Princess Diaries, and I've enjoyed every one. Cabot's characters are universally charming, and she writes adult romantic comedy as well as teenage fantasy.
Cabot herself is clearly someone who adores pop culture in all its forms. She reviews movies and discusses her favorite TV shows on her blog. She even films herself in "book trailers" for her newly released novels. All of this, to my mind, makes her a perfect author to adapt. The Princess Diaries has been made into two movies, one of which was charming, if somewhat different from the books (I love Julie Andrews, but she's about as different from the book's chain-smoking, Sidecar-drinking, French-speaking character as you can get). The second was ... well, some things are better left unsaid. All in all, I feel like Hollywood could do better by Cabot's creations. Here's how:
DO remake The Princess Diaries as a television show. I could easily see it as a successful CW offering, given the demographic, and there are enough books to stretch into quite a few seasons of television, even without too much altering of plot. The series is comfortably PG and wouldn't need any toning down for network TV; and given the right set of writers, location filming in New York, and a suitably quirky cast, I could see The Princess Diaries as the sort of anti-Gossip Girl.
DO bring Heather Wells to the big screen. Cabot's murder mystery series starring a plus-sized ex-pop star draws on her own real life experience as a dorm manager at NYU. There's comedy, suspense, romance, and once again a great New York setting. I found the first book to be the most compelling plotwise, and I think it could stand alone fairly well as a film.
DO hire Cabot to develop an original series or film. Her ability to understand and write young women is a fairly rare talent, especially in Hollywood. And given her enthusiasm for the screen and her prolific mind - with multiple series and standalone novels to her credit, it's clear she isn't short on ideas - she seems like the perfect candidate.
DON'T assume Cabot's writing is just for kids. Those of her works that are already in the process of being adapted for the screen - Avalon High and the Mediator series - are entertaining, but her more mature works are just as compelling. She can shine as more than just an inspiration for the Disney Channel.
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