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Not even a month ago, we read the dazzling article (“How to Get Into College by Really, Really Trying” in the NY Times) about a Harvard undergrad who also just happened to have a penned a hot new book, “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life”.

Darn it, we thought. There’s someone who’s practically an infant, and she has a published book. Well, not so fast. Turns out a large number of passages in her book were cribbed (“unintentionally and unconsciously” according to the author, Kaavya Viswanathan) from the books of Megan McCafferty. Publisher’s Marketplace provides a PDF file of all the known instances of plagiarism in the book.

Is this yet another data point on the risks and benefits of the whole ubercompetitive parenting trends of the new millennium? The original NY Times article describes Ms. Viswanathan as “taking part in the full panoply of enrichment programs and extracurricular activities that have become the birthright of the Ivy bound -- summers at the Center for Talented Youth, a Johns Hopkins University program for gifted children; editor in chief of her school newspaper; advanced placement courses at her magnet high school in Hackensack, N.J.” Her parents even shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to IvyWise, a college counseling firm. For someone like this, publishing a novel before age twenty while taking courses at Harvard seems like the logical next act.

Ms. Viswanathan did indeed get her novel, but at what cost? Maybe it would have been better to retain her integrity and just set the bar a tad lower.

--Melanie & Kelly