Richie's Picks: VIOLA IN REEL LIFE by Adriana Trigiani, Harper Teen,
September 2009, 288p., ISBN: 978-0-06-145102-7
"'Hiiiiiiya!' Trish bounds into the room with her pink digital camera and
snaps a photo of Marisol for the cloud on the door. She looks at the
picture. 'Ooh, this is a good one.' Trish says. 'Hola, Marisol! I'm your
resident advisor, Trish.'
"'Nice to meet you,' Marisol says, blinking from the flash. 'These are my
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carreras.'
"Trish fusses over Marisol's parents as she fussed over mine. Trish
speaks the worst Spanish I have ever heard. It's all choppy and she uses her
hands a lot. However, Mr. and Mrs. Carreras are very pleased that Trish is
trying. I watch as she skillfully puts yet another set of parents at ease.
They must learn that in resident advisor training. 'I'll be right back,'
Trish says and skips out of the room.
"'Wow.' Marisol watches her go.
"'I call her Trish Starbucks. She has more pep than a ventilatte.'
"'She seems nice.'
"'Oh yeah, she's buckets of nice.'
"Mr. and Mrs. Carreras look at one another, confused.
"'Forgive me. I'm from New York. I'm a little wry,' I explain.
"Marisol speaks to her parents in Spanish, and they laugh really hard.
Marisol turns to me. 'My parents think you're funny.'
"'You know what I always say...'
"'No. What?' Marisol asks as she unzips her duffel.
"'If you can make your parents laugh, you can probably get them to buy you
a car when you're sixteen.'
"Marisol smiles. 'I'll keep that in mind.'"
Fourteen-year-old aspiring filmmaker Viola Chesterson did not want to
leave her home in Brooklyn and begin her freshman year of high school at a
Midwest boarding school -- Prefect Academy for Young Women -- in South Bend,
Indiana. She did not want to leave behind her Best Friend Forever And
Always, Andrew Bozelli. She did not want to leave behind her crush, the best
looking boy in the five boroughs, junior Tag Nachmanoff. But her parents --
who met in film school and work as a team -- have rented out their home for
the year and are heading to Afghanistan for a film project. Being that
Viola's mother, herself, had spent a lovely year at Prefect Academy back in
the eighties while Viola's stage actress grandmother was part of a national
touring company, Viola has been plopped down in Indiana.
"Indiana -- translated it's a Native American word for flat. Okay, I made
that up."
Viola has been a well cared for, only child who suddenly and reluctantly
has to share a room with three other girls in what feels like the middle of
nowhere. While trying to adjust to her new surroundings, she must also
adjust to BFFAA Andrew hooking up with a Brooklyn hottie and suddenly not
being at her IM beck and call. But things begin looking up when she gains
popularity by using her film savvy to bring the annual hokey Founder's Day
stage production into the Twenty-first century. And then, like Cinderella to
the ball (well, not exactly), she accompanies a busload of her schoolmates
to a dance at the boys' school -- Grabeel Sharpe Academy -- and encounters a
cute freshman with his own Panorama X12 around his neck.
A cold,snowy winter, a ghost mystery, kisses, cookies, roommates, a video
diary, a film competition, and Viola's crack-me-up-every time observations
all make this an endearing coming of age story that I really enjoyed from
one end to the other.
VIOLA IN REEL LIFE is an exceptionally fun middle school read for tweens
and teens, particularly all those out there who are experimenting with video
or are into the dramatic arts. It is incredible how much author-filmmaker
Adriana Trigiani shows us about the complexities of Viola's envisioning
and producing a "simple" fifteen-minute video for the story's climactic film
competition. And there are sure to be some great arguments between readers
regarding what is said by one of Viola's schoolmates about how boys
typically deal with competition versus how girls deal with it.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks
_http://www.librarything.com/catalog/richiespicks_
(http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator, _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/)
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks)
**************Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the
grill. (http://food.aol.com/grilling?ncid=emlcntusfood00000004)
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