Synopses & Reviews
A brainy girl's first crush on a certain British royal leads to unexpected discoveries about life, loss, love, and loyalty in this hilarious, poignant, award-winning novel set in modern Berlin.Nelly Sue Edelmeister knows exactly who she is: a skinny thirteen-year-old Berlin schoolgirl with thick glasses, a brain the size of the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, and a brilliant career ahead in astronomy. But that's before she develops a hopeless crush on the handsome and newly bereaved Price William, future king of Great Britain. And it's definitely before she meets the odd but oddly attractive Maximilian Minsky former New Yorker, full-out goth, and basketball ace who is klutzy Nelly's last hope for making the school team before it heads off to Eton, England, and virtually into Prince William's arms. Meanwhile, Mom is pushing Nelly to do the bat mitzvah thing, and her parents are bickering day and night. Sometimes it seems like the no-nonsense Risa, their beloved, elderly family friend a survivor of Germany's darker past is the only one in the house who keeps Nelly sane.
With pitch-perfect insight into adolescent angst and infatuation, family tensions, and the experience of being Jewish in contemporary Berlin, Holly-Jane Rahlens paints a humorous and surprisingly moving portrait of a determined heroine posed to charm young readers across the globe. Includes a glossary of foreign terms.
Synopsis
Nelly Sue Edelmeister knows exactly who she is: a skinny thirteen-year-old Berlin schoolgirl with thick glasses, a brain the size of the
About the Author
HOLLY-JANE RAHLENS was born in Queens, New York, and graduated from Queens College. She then left for Berlin, where she has lived all of her adult life. While remaining an American citizen, she has flourished in the German media world, working in radio, television, and film as an actress, producer and commentator and creating a series of highly praised one-woman shows. Written in English, PRINCE WILLIAM, MAXIMILIAN MINSKY, AND ME was translated into German and earned the prestigious 2003 Duetscher Jugendliteraturpreis as the best young adult novel published in Germany. Holly-Jane Rahlens has since adapted the book into a screenplay, which is scheduled to go into production in the summer of 2005. She says, "I wrote this book to remind myself and all my readers that life is not simply black and white. In other words, the smartest girl in the class can actually sometimes be the dumbest. An "enfant terrible" can turn out to be Prince Charming. We can put our faith in the laws of science yet still embrace our religious roots. And even a city with a dark past like Berlin can, indeed, become a haven of light." Holly-Jane Rahlens lives in Berlin with her husband and their nine-year-old son, Noah.