 In the book, Mias father is not dead. Rather he has testicular  cancer. In order to avoid what Disney thought was a too adult topic,  he was just written as dead in the movie. In the book, when Mia  shoves the ice cream on Lana, her father sticks up for her with her  mother. Also in the book, the plot of Mias mother Helen dating her  math teacher is a much bigger deal.