Angela Cerrito

Today I'm excited to be hosting YA author Angela Cerrito. I had the pleasure of meeting Angela--an American currently living in Europe--last spring when she was in Toronto on business, and we hit it off right away.

I got my hands on her debut YA novel THE END OF THE LINE soon after her visit and loved it. A very moving story.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

ISBN 978-0-8234-2287-6 Published by Holiday House

Robbie is locked in a room with nothing but a desk, a chair, a stack of paper and pencil. No belt, no shoes, no socks. He’s starving, but all they give him is water. Robbie has reached The End of the Line, AKA Great Oaks School, and at Great Oaks there’s no time off for good behavior.
All good behavior will get you are points. Enough points and you get something to eat, a bed, bathroom privileges. Thirteen-year-old Robbie’s first-person account of his struggles at the school—at times horrifying, at times hilarious—alternates with flashbacks to the events that led to his incarceration. If Robbie is to survive The End of the Line, he must confront the truth: He is a murderer.

"A thought-provoking look at culpability and grief," Kirkus Reviews

"Robbie's story has the potential to make young people think, care, and possibly change." VOYA

ABOUT ANGELA CERRITO:

Angela Cerrito is...

1. a wife & mother
2. a daughter & granddaughter
3. a sister, aunt, niece, and cousin
4. a graduate of Dearborn High School (Michigan)
5. a graduate of Pacific University (Oregon)
6. an animal lover
7. a world traveler
8. a US citizen living in Europe
9. a physical therapist
10. the author of THE END OF THE LINE

Isn't that a great bio? And the format relates to her book. To find out more, visit her website. You will earn extra entries in her giveaway (see below) if you go to her site and make your own list. :)


GET TO KNOW ANGELA:

**Not satisfied with her list, Maureen probes deeper.**  ;)

MAUREEN: What’s your favorite holiday?
ANGELA:  Halloween

MAUREEN: Just around the corner! Who was your favorite teacher in grade school? Why?
ANGELA:  I have to name my middle school math teacher, Mr. Nastase, because he cared about all of us personally, not just about our grades. He actually noticed when me and my BFF didn’t sit next to each other and asked to see me after class. He didn’t take any crap from me. He said, “Don’t tell me you don’t care. The reason the two of you are ignoring each other is because you got your feelings hurt. If you don’t care about someone, they can’t hurt your feelings.” He was right, of course. I’m sure we would have mended our hurt feelings eventually, but because of Mr. Nastase we did it sooner. And we’re still BFF today! (Many MANY years after middle school!).

MAUREEN: What an insightful and caring man. Where in the world would you most like to visit?
ANGELA:  I’d love to visit Harbin, China for the ice lantern festival and see the island of Crete.

MAUREEN: What was the first story you remember writing?
ANGELA:  When I was about ten, I wrote a story called Candy bars and Carrot Juice about a girl who was trying to come to terms with her family’s sudden interest in eating healthy. Also she won a huge sum of money in the story – a hundred dollars a week for the rest of her life.

MAUREEN: Salsa or guacamole?
ANGELA:  How can you have one without the other?

MAUREEN: Good point. :) Which of your characters would you most/least to invite to dinner, and why?
ANGELA:  From THE END OF THE LINE I would want to invite Ryan because, even though he has no table manners, he is desperately in need of a good meal. I’d also like to invite Robbie’s Grandma to a party sometime.

MAUREEN:  Did you belong to a clique in high school? Which one of the standard high school stereotypes did you best fit in to?
ANGELA:  I think I fit in best with my friends from orchestra. Is orchestra geek a category?

MAUREEN: Definitely counts as a category. :) What color would you make the sky if it wasn’t going to be blue anymore and why?
ANGELA:  I won’t be annoying and say that the sky isn’t blue ---wait…did I just say that? You know how sunrise and sunset is so indescribably subtle and powerful and beautiful at the same time but only in THAT part of the sky where the sun is rising or setting and the rest of the sky is just waiting around being clear and greyish and water color? Well, if it were in my power I would amplify those color changes to include the entire sky during sunrise and sunset. During the day I think we should keep the color-weather connection but maybe jazz it up a little…so the sky could be pale yellow with orange glitteriness at sunny times and before a storm could turn purple with silver and red glitteriness. And…obviously, I’m going to have to give this question a lot more thought.

MAUREEN: I want to live in a world where you're in charge of the sky!

MAUREEN'S GOTTA ASK -- ANGELA'S GOTTA ANSWER ☺

MAUREEN: I love that The End of the Line is told with two timelines. Was that your plan from the start?

ANGELA:  Yes, the story began that way with the very first two chapters. I didn’t know exactly where the story was going at first, but I trusted Robbie and Ryan to tell me and kept alternating chapters through the first draft.

BOOK GIVEAWAY!

International Contest!  Win a signed copy of THE END OF THE LINE.

How to enter: You must leave a comment below. For extra entries –add a list at www.angelacerrito.com or post about the contest on your blog, FB, twitter, tumblr or anywhere else on the web. Special note –if you already have a list at angelacerrito.com it still counts.
If you take advantage of the extra entries options, please send me an email with your links and I will write back and confirm the number of entries.
Contest closes at midnight on 3 November, 2011.
Winner will be selected at random and announced on 5 November.

KEEP TRACK OF WHAT ANGELA'S UP TO:

Email: AngelaCerrito AT yahoo DOT com
Website: www.angelacerrito.com
FB: www.facebook.com/angelacerrito
Twitter: www.twitter.com/angelacerrito
LJ: http://angelacerrito.livejournal.com
Tumblr: http://angelacerrito.tumblr.com
Google+: http://tinyurl.com/62sgawd
Blog: www.angelacerrito.blogspot.com

TEACHERS can find a curriculum guide here: http://www.angelacerrito.com/teachers-guide.html