Woah boy. Some may think we overstate just how off the rails children’s graphic novels have gone. We believe this is yet another example of how, if anything, we are understating the problem. We have often commenced on the difference between the cover for a book and the contents found within. But we aren’t sure if we have ever seen such a vast discrepancy, and resulting deception, as what you will find in “The Princess Diaries Graphic Novel”. And this is made 1000% times worse by the fact that there is also a huge discrepancy between the extremely concerning content in this short cute looking book and the movie Disney made under the same title. Here we are not judging the value and concern of that movie. What we are here to do is raise a HUGE warning flag with this graphic novel. Let us be clear. The publisher and author putting this cover on this book makes it literally one of the most concerning titles we have ever reviewed, especially considering the extremely young girls that will inevitably be drawn to it, both due to the colorful, sweet looking image and the popular movie. So extremely sad.

So what do you find in this outwardly innocent looking package? Sexual content, dialogue to make girls feel insecure, inappropriate relationships and plenty more. We will detail it below, but please try and keep the cover and illustrated format in mind as we do. Please picture this book sitting at the library or in the bookstore and imagine who is picking it up. Ok, here we go.

We will share the worst moment right up front. This is what sends this title over the cliff. Mia (the main character), her best friend Lilly and Lilly’s brother Michael are laying around at a sleepover. Shockingly, even for this book, Lilly tells Mia, “I’m not blaming you. I’d have sex with him too… but only to repopulate the planet…” (here they are all laughing hysterically). Michael then asks Mia, “What about you? Would you have sex with Josh Richter?”. Mia’s reply (the reply the author decided to put in front of these very young girl readers)? “Losing your virginity is a really big step. I would only do it if we’d been dating for at least a year… and the guy pledged his undying love for me… and he took me to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway” (all this with a very serious, thoughtful face). So yeah, there’s that.

Not that you as a Christian parent will need more than that, but let’s continue…

The book opens with Mia thinking, “I feel like all I ever do is lie”. We immediately see this deception on full display. The illustration shows a sweet looking Mia smiling ear to ear at her mom. The second mom walks out of the room? Mia slams her diary down with a wickedly looking angry expression on her face saying, “She wants me to write down my feelings? Fine!”. This angry tirade lasts a full page.

What is she so upset about to open this story? A portion of it comes through in a sad and harmful dialogue, “Like everybody doesn’t already know I’m a freak, I’m practically the biggest freak in the entire school! I mean, let’s face it. I’m five foot nine, flat chested, and a freshman. How much more of a freak could I be?”. Really just take a minute and picture a young girl reading that, especially one already struggling with confidence and self worth.

The other big thing Mia is very upset about is potential embarrassment around her mom agreeing to have a first date with her Algebra teacher. She comments to LIlly, “He’s not so cool when he’s sticking his tongue in your mom’s mouth”. Later Mia comes home early from a sleepover to find, after seemingly only a single date or two, that mom and the algebra teacher are now sleeping together (he is there in the morning half dressed, holding a coffee cup in front of him to block his groin region).

Next up we see two teens very inappropriately making out in a very sensual way. Mia’s reaction is shown to be clearly jealous because she has a crush on the boy side of this makeout session. This is drawn out over multiple illustrated frames. Finally Lilly yells for them to “Go suck face somewhere else”.

Soon we find out Mia also has a crush on Lilly’s brother Michael. We see a drawing showing a list of “interesting facts” about him. These include that he doesn’t believe in “organized religion” and “sometimes when Michael comes out of his room he is not wearing a shirt… Michael has a really nice chest. His stomach muscles are extremely well defined”. He is shown shirtless illustrated and Mia is clearly excited. In a later list, she adds “He looks really good without a shirt… And if it really was the end of the world, Lilly would be dead, so she’d never know her brother and I have been procreating”.

In an odd moment, a woman tries to help a man who she believes to be blind cross the street. He shockingly turns, smiles and pinches her butt. Mia explains that “He’s not blind. He’s a perv”. Again, please just think of the audience here.

Lilly is the loud, liberal cause advocate friend. We hear from her: ““Why would Helen get married when our society doesn’t even accept women as equals… and refuses to give them rights over their own bodies?”. This comes up all through the book. We read a lot of things like when she yells to a pharmacist, “I need to pick up my mom’s prescription, which she only needs because of society’s unfair beauty standards for women”. In another line she again yells, “This is why we need a constitutional amendment prohibiting us from gender assault”.

Mia is also not a character you would want your daughter emulating. When Mia finally finds out she is the sole heir, the princess to a kingdom her response fits right in with the rest of the material. She rudely yells at her father and storms out, basically running away for a short time while her parents have no idea where she is. Mia describes herself as a “flat-chested vegetarian”. After describing her grandmother’s looks and use of makeup, she points out that her grandfather likely died because “he probably rolled over one morning and got a good look at her”.

This same grandmother is yet another unfortunate female example. She is extremely rude. She chain smokes. She drinks (at one point she calls a servant for “reinforcements”, to which he brings her more alcohol). She tells Mia things like, “Sometimes a lie is more polite than the truth” and “a princess never apologizes”. She gives Mia a Princess quiz which includes the proper way to make a sidecar, an alcoholic drink (Mia gets this right). The test also instructs on how to respond if a man tells you he loves you, “thank you”. Maybe the worst thing that happens with grandma is when she shows up and completely undermines Mia’s parents. She speaks very rudely to her dad and then hangs up on him. She then insults Mia’s mom’s home, cuts her off and then takes Mia and leaves.

A stereotypical rude, beautiful cheerleader character is extremely rude to Mia. She calls Mia a freak. Bringing back up an earlier concerning line, she says “Why do you bother wearing a bra, Mia? You still don’t have anything to put in it”. Later she brags about a party, “After last dance, Trish got so drunk she passed out” in a bragging tone, to which Trish responds, “It was a great party”. When she says her parents wouldn’t let her go, this group laughs at her saying, “You don’t tell them the truth” like it is the most obvious thing ever, “You tell them you’re spending the night at a friend’s house or something”. So, yeah…

Other items of concern:

• When Mia doesn’t want to tell Lilly about why she is upset, she says it is “Just PMS”. Lilly then goes into graphic detail on how she knows that is not true.
• A magazine cover shows a woman in a small bikini. Another cover refers to Mia as a “love child”
• Grandma shares that her father “has hurt countless models all over the world”
• Mia’s date reaches down and puts his hand on her leg under the dinner table inappropriately.
• There are multiple things like “Gawd”, “Oh my God”, “OMG”, “Christ” used flippantly.
• Reference to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Xena the Warrior Princess” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”.