Book Spotlight : The Gossip File - Anna Staniszewski

 

Synopsis: The Gossip File - Book #3 The Dirt Diary Series - Anna Staniszewski - January 2015

The Gossip File:

-Chandra lets little kids pee in the pool.
-Melody stole $ from the cafe register.
-Ava isn’t who she says she is…

Ava is cool. Ava is confident. Ava is really Rachel Lee who is lying her butt off.
Rachel is visiting her dad at a resort in sunny Florida and is ready for two weeks of relaxing poolside, trips to Disney World and NOT scrubbing toilets. Until her dad’s new girlfriend, Ellie, begs Rachel to help out at her short-staffed cafe. That’s when Rachel kinda sorta adopts a new identity to impress the cool, older girls who work there. Ava is everything Rachel wishes she could be. But when the girls ask “Ava” to help add juicy resort gossip to their file, Rachel’s not sure what to do…especially when one of the entries is a secret about Ellie

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21996388-the-gossip-file?from_search=true

 

Do you and Rachel have any characteristics in common? If you were both in the same middle school class how do you think you'd relate to one another?

People often ask how much of me is in my books. With The Gossip File, I’d say that there’s actually quite a bit of me in the main character. Unlike Rachel, I’ve never had to deal with divorcing parents, I’m not very good at baking, and I’ve never had to clean other people’s houses. But very much like Rachel, I’m shy, love making up wacky sayings, and often manage to get myself into embarrassing situations.

When it came to creating Rachel’s character, I essentially took some of my quirks and exaggerated them as much as I could. It was so much fun coming up with the weird sayings (“Holy boiled asparagus!”) that Rachel uses throughout the series because they’re similar to how I play with language in real life. But when it comes to Rachel’s shyness, I think that’s where we have the most in common.

When I was growing up, I was extremely quiet except when I was with my family or close friends. I was funny and goofy around people I knew, but when I was sitting in a classroom, I’d clam up. Like Rachel, I had lots to say, but I could never break out of my shell and actually say it. It wasn’t until I got to high school and got really into theater that I started to find my voice, and I’ve continued to become more confident as I’ve gotten older. To be honest, though, deep down, I think I’ll always be that shy, quiet girl.

So does this mean Rachel and I would have been friends if we went to the same middle school? Yes and no. I think we’d have a really hard time striking up a conversation since we’re both so shy! But once we got through that barrier, I think we’d have a lot of fun together. And while I’m not terribly good at baking, I’m very good at eating baked goods, so I’d be happy to help Rachel polish off leftovers whenever she needed me to.