Summary

"Nelly's voice rings true as she deals with friends, family, love, and religion. . . . This fast-paced work will grab readers from the start." SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL Nelly Sue Edelmeister knows exactly who she is: a skinny, brainy thirteen-year-old Berlin schoolgirl. But that's before she develops a hopeless crush on a certain British royal. And it's definitely before she meets the oddly attractive Maximilian Minsky, her last hope for making the basketball team before it heads off to England and she is virtually thrown into Prince William's arms. Meanwhile, her parents' bickering is stressing her out, as is her bat mitzvah looming ahead. Readers will relate to this funny, heartfelt tale of a determined teen as she makes some surprising discoveries about life, loss, love, and faith.

Author Biography

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.

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Excerpts

"The tryouts are for the basketball team. Not for the National Association of Nerds," Yvonne said.

"I heard," I said. "I'm not deaf." I bent down to tie my shoes.

"Maybe not deaf, but you sure are uncoordinated!" Caroline said.

"Tsk, tsk, Caroline," Yvonne said, shaking her head. "You're so unfair to poor Nelly. She has excellent coordination. Look, she can sit and tie her shoelaces at the same time."

The girls' laughter was drowned out by the sound of the bell for the next class. They picked up their things and scrambled away.

Peace.

I closed my eyes and waited for a beautiful starry sky to appear. Then I saw myself rise and float into its deep blackness. I soared higher and higher, on past one diamond of light to another. In the distance, I saw Prince William coming toward me, William in his three-piece, dark blue, pin-striped, cashmere-blend suit. He held out his hand and took me into his arms. As I put my head on his shoulder, my lips grazed the soft fuzz on the nape of his neck. My stomach felt funny. My lips tingled. We danced on and on, past my mother, astonished to see me, a graceful princess, with William, the price of princes. William spun me around and around, past Yvonne and Caroline and Nicole, all of them clearly envious, on past Pia and Anton, on past the entire student body.

Me, Nelly, William's chosen one.

I opened my eyes.

I'll show them, I thought. I'll show them all.

I stood up. Skinny. Klutzy. Knock-kneed. But determined. I had a goal in life. I was going to be a princess. But first, of course, I'd have to learn how to dribble.

_________

PRINCE WILLIAM, MAXIMILIAN MINSKY, AND ME by Holly-Jane Rahlens. Copyright (c) 2005 by Holly-Jane Rahlens. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.

Excerpted from Prince William, Maximilian Minsky, and Me by Holly-Jane Rahlens
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.