The Allie Finkle Super Sleepover with Meg Cabot - Pbteen

Allie Finkle's Super Sleepover Live Webcast! Hi Everybody, I'm very excited, I love sleepovers, but you know what the best ingredient to a sleepover is? A best girlfriend, so everybody let's welcome Meg Cabot! Hi Meg, how are you? You look so cute in your jammies! They're so comfy! I love it, these are the comfiest beds. I love your penguins! We're like two nine year old girls, "I love your PJs! Oh my god!!" This is so fun! Alright, you are so talented and gifted, you do one of my favorite things in the world, you make children happy. And ten years ago you had this huge breakout with the Princess Diaries which is just, which I love, I love the books, but I love the movie too. Thank you. Come on, the Princess Diaries, you're allowed to clap! But then you decided to write for a younger audience, with the Allie Finkel, so why did you do that and are you happy you made that choice? Well, you know what happened was that so many of the younger sisters of the readers of the Princess Diaries, were coming up to me and saying "When are you going to write a book that I can read?" You know, that doesn't have kissing, and stuff like that in it. Gross, gross, it's gross to, you know, younger readers. and so I started thinking about it and I came up with an idea for this character named Allie, and I started writing these books for younger readers because it was really an on, kind of by demand, by popular demand. Now I love the idea that these are rules because they're rules, they are rules for not just Allie, but for every little girl to live by. Now how did, how did those come about? The idea about the rules was I was thinking back, to fourth grade and how hard it was, I mean math is easy because there's rules, well, it's not for me, but theoretically it should be easy easy because there's all these rules, and that's why Allie likes it because you know, two plus two is always four. Right. But, things started getting weird for me in the fourth grade because you know you have these friends, and you know, okay one day your best friend is your best friend, and the next day, she's not your best friend anymore. And there's no explanation. No explanation, and Allie in the books is like "What is going on? There are no rules for this, there's no rules for friendship!" So she starts keeping a book of rules. Alright so you have a lot of influence over young girls because you write these popular books. What would you say is the theme that runs through all of your books? Or this particular series? I think each one of the books in the Allie Finkle's series kind of has a different theme. In the first book in um, Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls Moving Day, we talked about how Allie moves from one side of town to the other, and it's really upsetting for her because she is so scared, she has to, you know, move, and make all new friends and start a whole new school and that's really you know upsetting to someone who's nine. That's so scary! And then in the second book, um, The New Girl, Allie is the new girl in school. It's really really hard when you're nine and you know and she has a girl in her class who comes up to her and this actually happened to me when I was in fourth grade, um, a girl comes up to me and told me "I'm gonna beat you up." Every day. She never did beat me up, but she just said she was going to. To intimidate and scare you. Yeah and how do you deal with that? And do Allie starts making up rules on how you deal with that, and so she's dealing with, um, you know kind of a bully situation. And then in the new book, Best Friends and Drama Queens, Allie actually has friends now, at the new school, and things are going pretty well, she's got some best friends but all of a sudden another girl comes into this situation who kind of tries to, she's a little bit of a bossy girl and she's kind of trying to break into Allie's group of friends, and bossing them all around, and some girls start acting like drama queens and that's actually something that happened to me to, where, you know, you have a group of friends, and everything's going well and all of a sudden a new girls comes in and she's like, "Hey I don't like the games you're playing, let's play some new games," and she's maybe a little bit more mature. Right. And, um, it's upsetting, so they're all kind of little, little, scenes from actually my past. Pets play a big part in your books, and the love that you have for them. Now, do you have? It's true, I wanted to have a kitten so badly, we had a family dog, and I wanted to have my own pet, and my parents said, when we move to the big scary house, if you're mature about it and after you've left all your friends behind, and you don't, you know know anyone and you're all picked up, we will get you a kitten and that is the kitten that I got, it was a little, um, black kitten named Jenny, and um, you know she was taken away from her mother prematurely, just like in Allie Finkle Number 2, um, The New Girl. I had to wean her myself, and give her special food. An, um, it was fantastic. I loved that cat. Okay, so this is what we know about you so far. I know, you're an Aquarius...yes...What day is your birthday? February 1st. February 1st, okay, Aquarius, and you love cats. I do. You love rules. I love rules. You're a brilliant writer, you live in New York, and Key West, and so now tell us something we don't know. Give us the scoop? I'm left-handed, like, President Obama. Yay! Oh my god, where did you get these? Oh! Wow! Okay I starred in my - you've been married twice, we know that - No! No? I starred in my high school musical just like Gabriella, Oh my gosh, and I played Daisy May in Little Abner, and I went to my prom with him, the guy who plays Little Abner, he was so sweet. What are some of your happy happy memories? Um, I matured a little bit. umm You know, riding my bike, I loved all my girlfriends, we had fun, and I like being, you know, in theater and doing that kind of thing, drawing, I loved to draw, and I wanted to be an illustrator so bad - she's a very talented illustrator, too - I loved drawing and I actually moved to New York City to be an illustrator. Butt you can do both that's amazing. Um, I ended up,just - being a giant giant super successful author, bummer! Too bad! We're gonna have a lightning round of getting to know you, things that we want to know, alright. I'm gonna put sixty seconds on the clock. Oh no! Okay, one whole minute. This is horrible! It is? It's scary! I know, it is a little scary. But you're not gonna, you can't get it wrong. It's about yourself. Okay! Okay, Alright. Are you ready? I'm scared but I think I'm ready. Okay, all right. Oh my Gosh What's your favorite color? Blue. What's your favorite age? Eleven. Favorite food? Pizza. Least favorite food? Eggs. Favorite word? Like. Lake? Like! Like, oh like? Least favorite word? Uh, mucus. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.Favorite actor? George Clooney. favorite actress? You, Caroline Rhea! Ha ha ha ha. Okay. Favorite playground game? Softball. Favorite outfit in fourth grade? T-shirt and jeans. Favorite accessory? Uh, purse! Favorite book in fourth grade? Wrinkle in Time. Favorite subject in school? Uh, art! Favorite kind of music in fourth grade? Musicals. Favorite kind of music now? Pop. Scariest thing? Uh, spiders. Thing you're most proud of? Uh, my books. Personal favorite Meg rule? Uh, treat people the way you want to be treated. Peanut butter or jelly? Peanut butter! Alright - ha ha ha ha - Chocolate or brownies? Chocolate. And since you got through all the questions, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, yay! I did it! Yay! Alright, so book number three is the best title, Best Friends and Drama Queens. Isn't that a great title? Since you are the author and you are really Allie Finkle and you have a fantastic voice, will you read a passage from it? I would love to! Thank you very much! Just a quick, quick section. I like your glasses very much. Thank you.All right, um, this is actually a section where Alley is just coming into the class and her teacher asks her to come to her desk and speak to her. "Hi Mrs. Hunter," I replied - this is after Mrs Hunter says hello to her. I felt so shy, I couldn't look Mrs. Hunter in the eye. She has beautiful bright green eyes and they can either twinkle with good humor or crackle with disapproval, depending on her mood. I had seem them crackling in disapproval at a couple of people who had misbehaved in class and believe me I did not ever want them crackling at me. "Allie, I have a favor to ask you," Mrs Hunter said, getting right to business. "Sure," I said. I guess I hadn't won a contest after all, but that was okay. I hadn't expected that I had. At least if Mrs Hunter had a favor to ask it didn't mean I'd done anything wrong and that she was mad at me. I wanted to throw up, that's how grossed out I felt by what was happening to me. Actually I didn't want to throw up. The truth was I wanted to cry, but I knew I couldn't be a baby about it and cry in front of Mrs. Hunter who was so nice and told my grandma I was a joy to have around the classroom. Joy's don't cry just because they have to move to sit between two boys, even two disgusting, totally gross boys who don't bathe. So I said, giving Mrs. Hunter the bravest smile I could manage, "Sure, no problem." All right, it's understandable that you have a gazillion fans and they want to actually ask you some questions themselves. What's your first name, sweet girl? Emoni. Emoni! First of all, I love the ensemble. Completely Love that dress. Okay, and your glasses! What's your question for Meg? Who was your best friend in fourth grade and do you still talk to her? My best friend in fourth grade was actually named Erica, just like in the books, Allie Finkle, and I still talk to her all the time. We email, and she lives out in L.A. and I go out and visit her and her husband all the time. Okay we have a surprise question for you Meg. What? Yes, we have a little surprise. Uh, take a look at the screen. We have two little people. Hi Auntie Megan! Auntie Megan did you ever have a fight with your brother um, when you were little? Not that! Those are your nieces! They're so cute! Did I ever fight with my brother? 0:10:15.1500:10:19.060 That is so cute. Not that! they're fighting. Not that! What are your nieces names? Uh, Maddie and Riley. Madison and Riley. Wave to them on the internet. There they are. There up there somewhere. I used to fight with my brothers all the time, just like them, I used to fight all the time, we would fight over what channel to watch on TV, of course, huge. And then who got to sit where in front of the TV. I want to thank everybody for coming and thank everybody on the internet! Thank you guys! All the people on the internet, and I want to thank - and we want to thank you for writing all these beautiful books that makes girls' lives better. That's the best part of all. I want to thank you for doing this!