Viola in Reel Life
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Viola doesn't want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up at Prefect Academy, an all-girls school in South Bend, Indiana, far faraway from her home in Brooklyn, New York. Now Viola is stuck for a whole year in what seems to be the sherbet-coloured-sweater capital of the world. Ick.
There's no way Viola's going to survive the year - especially since she has to replace her BFFAA (best friend forever and always) Andrew with three new roommates who, disturbingly, actually seem to likebeing at Prefect. She resorts to viewing the world (and hiding) behind the lens of her video camera.
But boarding school, her roommates and even Indiana, are nothing like Viola thought they would be, and she soon realises that she may be in for the most incredible year of her life. But first she has to put the camera down and let the world in.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Trigiani (Big Stone Gap) takes the familiar boarding school milieu and gives it some welcome nuance and a refreshingly grounded feel in her debut YA work, first in a proposed series. To her horror, 14-year-old aspiring filmmaker Viola Chesterton is forced to leave her family, her funky Brooklyn neighborhood and her "Best Friend Forever And Always" Andrew to spend her freshman year at Prefect Academy for Young Women in South Bend, Ind. But Viola soon finds much to like in her new roommates and rural campus, chronicling her experiences in a video diary. While the story of Viola's blossoming may seem slow to readers used to students who are training to be spies or developing crushes on vampires, Trigiani offers a realistic look at the ever-shifting bonds of friendship and the adjustment to one's first taste of life away from home. Viola's reflections on the sisterhood of girlfriends and the importance of girls standing up for themselves are resonant but never cheerleaderish. Trigiani uses Viola's droll humor and a colorful supporting cast to great effect, ensuring that readers will want to know what happens to them in future volumes. Ages 12 up.
