In
April 2006, Kaavya's first novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, was published. Shortly after publication, the Harvard Crimson printed allegations that the author plagiarized passages from two novels by Megan McCafferty. The subsequent storm of national publicity led her publisher, Little,
Brown and Company, to withdraw all editions of the book, derailed plans by DreamWorks SKG to develop Opal Mehta into a movie, and encouraged readers to identify possible additional plagiarism within its pages.
On May 2, 2006, Michael Pietsch, Little,
Brown's senior vice president, released a statement saying "Little,
Brown and Company will not be publishing a revised edition of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life by Kaavya Viswanathan, nor
will we publish the second book under contract."
