PROFESSOR BINGO PRESENTS: VIOLA IN REEL LIFE-A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

WELCOME TO
BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S
"PROFESSOR BINGO
PRESENTS DAY" 
I'M EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THIS TUESDAY'S
"PROFESSOR BINGO PRESENTS DAY"
CHILDREN/YOUNG ADULT BOOK CHOICE IS.....

 GIVEAWAY ENDED
VIOLA IN REEL LIFE
BY ADRIANA TRIGIANI

ABOUT THE BOOK:

I'm marooned.

Abandoned.

Left to rot in boarding school . . .

Viola doesn't want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up at an all-girls school in South Bend, Indiana, far, far away from her home in Brooklyn, New York. Now Viola is stuck for a whole year in the sherbet-colored sweater capital of the world.

Ick.

There's no way Viola's going to survive the year—especially since she has to replace her best friend Andrew with three new roommates who, disturbingly, actually seem to like it there. She resorts to viewing the world (and hiding) behind the lens of her video camera.

Boarding school, though, and her roommates and even the Midwest are nothing like she thought they would be, and soon Viola realizes 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. 

PRAISE FOR VIOLA IN REEL LIFE:

“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…exceptionally fun.”

— Richie's Picks

 “A sweet, character-driven story. Viola is very real, as are her feelings, hopes, desires, and dreams.”

— School Library Journal

 “This book reminds each of us that a fish out of water really can find a new pond! Read it to remind yourself that your friends really do teach you something new every day.”

— Justine Magazine

 “Sarah Dessen for middle school…Trigiani deftly shows that teenage girls can be independent, have positive self-images, and be happy.”

— Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

 “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.”

— Booklist

 “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. [She] offers a realistic look at the ever–shifting bonds of friendship and the adjustment to one’s first taste of life away from home.”

— Publishers Weekly

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bestselling author Adriana Trigiani is beloved by millions of readers around the world for her hilarious and heartwarming novels. Adriana was raised in a small coal-mining town in southwest Virginia in a big Italian family. She chose her hometown for the setting and title of her debut novel, the critically acclaimed bestseller Big Stone Gap. The heartwarming story continues in the novel’s sequels Big Cherry Holler, Milk Glass Moon, and Home to Big Stone Gap. Stand-alone novels Lucia, Lucia; The Queen of the Big Time; and Rococo, all topped the bestseller lists, as did Trigiani’s 2009 Very Valentine and its 2010 sequel Brava, Valentine.

Trigiani teamed up with her family for Cooking with My Sisters, a cookbook coauthored by her sister Mary, with contributions from their sisters and mother. The cookbook-memoir features recipes and stories dating back a hundred years from both sides of their Italian-American family.

Adriana's novels have been translated and sold in more than 35 countries around the world. Trigiani's latest blockbuster Brava, Valentine (Very Valentine’s sequel) debuted at number seven on the New York Times bestseller list following its February 2010 debut. Valentine Roncalli juggles her long-distance romance, as she works to better the family’s struggling business. A once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes Val from the winding streets of Greenwich Village to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she finds a long-buried secret hidden deep within a family scandal.

Trigiani's first young adult novel, Viola in Reel Life—the first in a series—debuted in September 2009. Fans fell in love with fourteen-year-old filmmaker Viola Chesterton, who moves from Brooklyn to a South Bend, Indiana, boarding school. In Spring 2011, readers will delight in Trigiani’s follow-up novel Viola in the Spotlight, as Viola and friends spend an adventure-filled summer vacation in Brooklyn.

To read more about this wonderful author AND find out about the next in the "Viola" series VIOLA IN THE SPOTLIGHT, go HERE!  

  

MY REVIEW:
What more can this multi-talented dynamo do? When she recently gave readers a very special piece of her heart in DON’T SING AT THE TABLE: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers, I had to remind myself that Adriana Trigiani is the author of books with many varied themes. From VERY VALENTINE , LUCIA, LUCIA, and ROCOCO, to everything in BIG CHERRY HOLLER and BIG STONE GAP which is soon to be on the big screen, while in her “spare time”, she also arranges for dynamic tours of Italy! Now with VIOLA IN REEL LIFE, Adriana takes on the young adult audience with a delightful coming-of-age story where readers will first meet Viola Chesterson and upon finishing this book, be relieved to know that it is the first of a series!

Trigiani tells the story through Viola, a 14-year old who is a wise-cracking, honest, sarcastic New Yorker from Brooklyn (well, I loved her already just knowing that--check out my birth place!) who has a great sense of humor balanced out by all the normal insecurities of a girl her age. But what makes her “reely” special is her love of photography and movies. It is no wonder with her grandmother being a big-hearted, Broadway actress, and her parents who make documentary films for a living. It is that, in fact, with Viola’s parents off to Afghanistan to film a documentary, that has brought Viola to South Bend, Indiana, and the Prefect Academy for Girls for the year that they will be gone. This being her parents' idea, not Viola’s! Could Viola be any farther out of her element? She thinks not in the beginning but as the story progresses she finds that she shares much of the same things that the other girls do at the school. With Viola's passion for filming, she is able to look into this new place through the camera’s eye, or at least it is the excuse she can use.

Viola’s roommates, Suzanne, Romy, and Marisol, develop a friendship and as Viola grows throughout the school year, she learns to appreciate the new people she is with as well as her family and good friends she had to leave behind at home in Brooklyn. As would be typical, Prefect is a girls’ school but it doesn’t mean there aren’t boys in the story. In fact, Viola meets Jared at a school dance and they learn they both share a love of film and wind up both entered in the same video competition. Adriana Trigiani has developed these characters as she does all hers that have gone before with realism and feelings readers can relate to. There may be some things you don’t like about them, but you will certainly know they could be real people that you might know. From the clothing to their speech, from the use of technology to raging hormones and drama, Trigiani has these young teens dialed right in. Having taught middle school for the last part of my teaching years, believe me, Adriana knows these kids.

I loved the story and look forward to the soon to be out sequel. Once again, Adriana Trigiani has conquered another venue as Viola is believable and you care about her. VIOLA IN REEL LIFE is a REALLY fun read for adults as well, and I think a breath of fresh air that young adult and teen readers may just welcome amid the vampires and fairies that dominate much of their shelf space right now. 

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO KELLY AND ADRIANA,
I HAVE 3 COPIES OF THIS DELIGHTFUL
BOOK FROM ADRIANA'S NEW SERIES
TO GIVE AWAY TO 3 LUCKY WINNERS! 

 

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
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IN CASE YOU WIN!
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COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

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GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, FEBRUARY 11
GOOD LUCK!