Viola in Reel Life

August 10, 2009
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.

September 1, 2009
Gr 7-9-Viola's parents dumped her in the middle of nowhere. Well maybe "nowhere" isn't exactly true and perhaps "dumped" is too strong a word. As documentary filmmakers, her parents follow their stories. While they are filming in Afghanistan, they send their daughter to Prefect Academy for Young Women in South Bend, IN. Away from her home and friends in Brooklyn, Viola has resolved to be miserable. Her only comfort is in her daily IM conversations with her BFF, Andrew, and her personal video diary, "The Viola Reels." Then she meets her roommates, who are too great to be indifferent toward. Her constant video-camera-toting lands her on committees for school functions. To top it all off she meets a boy who shares her interest at a school dance. Suddenly, the ninth grader is happy, busy, and feeling at home. She even enters a film competition. Through the help and support of her friends and family, it could just be the short film of her dreams, maybe even good enough to win the competition. "Viola in Reel Life" is a sweet, character-driven story. Viola is very real, as are her feelings, hopes, desires, and dreams. There is not a lot of action, but the relationships portrayed in the book make it well worth reading."Melyssa Malinowski, Kenwood High School, Baltimore, MD"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2009
Grades 7-10 Viola has moviemaking in her DNA: her grandmother (Grand) is a well-known actress, and her parents make documentaries. Her own work consists of the video journal she makes about her new, Midwestern boarding school, where she is sent while her parents are filming in Afghanistan. Indiana is not Brooklyn, and no one at her new school can take the place of Andrew, her BFFAA. Can you say homesick? But Vis three roommatesbrainy, sunny Marisol; to-the-point Romy; and beautiful, boy-wise Suzannegradually fill her life. Even Jared Spencer, a fellow moviemaker from the nearby boys school, helps salve Vis loneliness, especially when Andrew finds his own soul mate back home. Best-selling adult author Trigiani nicely captures boarding-school bonding, adolescent female insecurities, and current teen trends. Fun, breezy, and full of subtle life lessons, this is a good follow-up or prequel to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, and it will pair nicely with Jen Calonitas Sleepaway Girls (2009).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2010
When Brooklyn native Viola arrives at an Indiana boarding school, the only thing that feels familiar is her well-used video camera. Viola's apprehension eventually disappears as she befriends her roommates and carves a niche for herself as resident filmmaker. The breezy novel goes along without much melodrama (or emotional depth) as it tells a neat and tidy tale of Viola's acclimation.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)