You read it here first: Even more allegations surface regarding author of “Opal Mehta”

Even more allegations of plagiarism have surfaced about Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life." Alert readers have already found wholesale cribbing from Megan McCafferty, Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot, and even Salman Rushdie. But as lawyers examined the book, line by line, they have found even more instances of "borrowing." Here are some examples:

From the side panel of a Wheaties cereal box: "Whole grains can be a part of your daily diet."

From page 59 in Viswanathan's book, "I decided that whole grains could be part of my daily diet."


From the prologue to Beowulf: "Lo, praise of the prowess of spear-armed Danes!"

From page 37 in Viswanathan's book, "Hello! Regarding myself in the mirror, I praised the prowess of the scissors-wielding Danish hairdresser!"


From Cinderella: "Her stepsisters took her dresses away from her and made her wear an old gray skirt."

From page 102 of Opal Mehta: "Jennifer took my dresses away from me and made me wear an old gray skirt from Lerners"


From the children’s jump rope rhyme Miss Mary Mack: "Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack, All dressed in black black black, With silver buttons buttons buttons, All down her back back back."

From page 64 of Opal Mehta: "She was dressed in a black Donna Karan dress with silver buttons down the back."

It looks like the plagiarism doesn't end there. Rumors are still swirling that there may be passages from the Da Vinci Code, and that some of the minor characters may first have appeared in paintings hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Stay tuned!

(For some real life examples, see http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513213)