I Wish I’d Written: Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot on a book that makes her laugh…

It’s not easy to make other authors laugh – believe me, I’ve tried! That’s why I wish I were the creator of ‘the Canadian Adrian Mole’ Alice MacLeod, the teen diarist of Alice, I Think, by Susan Juby (due out on your side of the pond as Blame It on the Hobbit in July 2004, from Collins Books). Alice has managed to provoke chuckles from even my most serious author friends. This is a heroine who has had the grave misfortune of being raised by parents so loving – and clueless – that they allow her to dress as a Hobbit for her first day of grade one (complete with ‘a rucksack of cakes’ to share with her new friends). It’s no wonder she’s immediately beaten to a pulp by her classmates. Forced to spend the next ten years being home-schooled for her own physical safety, Alice only agrees to give high school a try out of concern for her therapist’s feelings. Through Alice’s dry-witted, hilarious journal entries, we are taken on a riotous ride that includes forays into thrift store fashion; Sea Monkeys; making out in moon boots; and much, much more. And somehow, Susan Juby managed to write a sequel that’s even funnier than the first book. Somebody needs to give that author a tiara!

Alice, I Think by Susan Juby is to be published by Collins Children’s Books as Blame It on the Hobbit in July (0 00 716359 2, £5.99). The US edition can be ordered from Amazon.

Meg Cabot’s latest book is Princess Diaries 5: Give Me Five (Macmillan, 0 330 42046 1, £9.99).