Reel Life Starring Us

Reel Life Starring Us

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76  ·  rating details  ·  175 ratings  ·  47 reviews
Rockwood Hills Junior High is known for the close-knit cliques that rule the school. When arty new girl Dina gets the opportunity to do a video project with queen bee Chelsea, she thinks this is her ticket to a great new social life. But Chelsea has bigger problems than Dina can imagine: her father has lost his job, and her family is teetering on the brink. Without knowing...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published September 1st 2011 by Harry N. Abrams
more details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 504)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
Mary
New girl Dina has just moved to Long Island from Massachusetts. She was cool there, so she'll be cool here, too, right? Instead she keeps discovering potato chips smashed in her backpack--something called being chipped at this new school, Rockwood Hills Junior High. She notices the cliques, too, that seem to be based on relative wealth. With her trusty video camera, Dina starts recording what she sees, and even lands an assignment to make a video for the school's 50th anniversary celebration; ev...more
Courtney
I liked this book. I liked how the cover and summary of it didn't give me much of an idea of what it was about. Once I read it, I didn't expect a lot of things, but in a good way. I had no idea that the same person that wrote this book (Lisa Greenwald)wrote My Life in Pink and Green. I loved that book!
Anyways, this book is about a new girl named Dina. She's new at this school, and was popular at her old school, but here, she doesn't seem to fit in. When she gets partnered with popular girl Che...more
IndyPL Kids Book Blog
I know you’ve read this kind before - the story of the girl or girls trying to be popular or at the very least fitting in. This book is the quest for popularity…in reverse. Dina is starting a new school and is used to being liked; to being popular, at least, used to being popular enough.

“This whole starting-a-new-school thing would be easier if I had a T-shirt that stated the truth, or a removable tattoo on my forehead, or something, just so peple would know: I was cool at my old school. Really,...more
Michelle
Reel Life Starring Us is the first book I have read by Lisa Greenwald so I had no expectations about what the book would be like or her writing style. Although Reel Life Starring Us is aimed at a younger age range than I usually read I was not disappointed.

Reel Life Starring Us is a light read that follows Dina and Chelsea as they are paired together for the school gala. Dina, new to the school, hopes this will help her fit in and become popular, Chelsea just wants it over and done with.

I really...more
Karin
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Paula  Phillips
Have you ever felt like The New Kid ? Moving and Changing schools can be very difficult and as someone who has been to quite a few schools over my years - I'm 24 and I have lived in 17 different houses so far. I came from a family who for some reason or another loved to move not only houses but also towns, so I've had plenty of experience at being the new girl and more often than not - it isn't really a great experience.
In Reel Life Starring Us we meet Dina - she's the New Girl, at her old scho...more
Anncleire
“Sometimes in order to really see things you just have to look through a different lens” Dina.

Reel life starring us è un libro molto interessante. La storia si sviluppa grazie a due punti di vista quello di Dina e quello di Chelsea due ragazzine di tredici anni che viaggiano attraverso il primo trimestre dell’8th in middle school. Dina si è appena trasferita, mentre Chelsea ha avuto la mononucleosi e entrambe iniziano l’ultimo anno con un mese di ritardo. Chelsea in apparenza ha la vita perfetta...more
Holly
Originally posted at www.In-Interest.blogspot.com

Dina, the individual arty type, has just moved school and plummeted down from one of the popular people at her former school to being a complete misfit. Chelsea, on the other hand, is the popular and seemingly enviable pupil. What made this book so interesting was to the extent that their personality and lives contrast so completely. The book also alternates perspective which enables the reader to create a very clear judgement on the whole situati...more
Jennefer Abdullah
This book was about this girl, Dina, who moves into her new school in the eighth grade. Chelsea, on the other hand is a popular girl who has problems at home. Dina was pretty happy in her old school, but in this school, she's miserable. These two unlikely partners are forced to make a video documentary for their fiftieth anniversary of the school.

This book had it's ups and downs. One up was that it was written in two points of view, which is pretty cool. One chapter it's Dina's point of view and...more
Alex
At First Sight: Two very different girls are getting a late start at Rockwood Middle School' 8th grade class.

Dina just moved from Massachusetts to Long Island and is having a hard time fitting in - no one really talks to her, people keep dumping potato chips in her backpack and everyone looks at her funny because she likes to film random stuff.

Chelsea is one of the most popular girls at school, but she spent the first month of eight grade sick at home. But she's back and ready to take her spot...more
Jac (For Love and Books)
Dina was part of the popular crowd at her previous school, but when her parents move her to Long Island from her small town in Massachusetts she starts out as the weird new girl at a much larger middle school. She feels like she's won the lottery when when she's placed with Chelsea, the leader of the cool kids, for a school project. She's sure it's only a matter of time before she and Chelsea become good friends and she is included in the popular group!

Chelsea, is late starting school because of...more
StorySeekers
This book would be more for middle-graders since, the setting of story takes place in middle school. Even though I’m older than the girls in the story, I actually enjoyed reading the story. I brought back memories of my time in middle school. Lisa Greenwald is a wonderful writer. There were moments of surprise, laughter, and sometimes heartfelt, all bringing a great story of growing up. Too bad I didn’t have a book like this when I was in middle school.

The story is told in two points of view, Di...more
Randi
I enjoyed it and it was a feel good type of book. My only issue with it was that it was a little too young for me. Now I love me some young adult, but this was like more like pre-teen. I don't necessarily like the super younger novels. However, I didn't feel like I wasted time on it so that was good.

I liked in this book how the main character Dina really stuck to her roots and did things the way she liked to do them without really taking much outside influence. I guess as a mom that is all I ca...more
Luisa
In Greenwald's Reel Life Starring Us Chelsea is queen bee at Rockwood Hills Middle School, but she had mono and missed the first month of eighth grade. It was easier for her to keep her secret that way. Dina is the new girl who's always carrying around a video camera and wonders how she could have been so popular at her school back in the Berkshires and such a loser now. Both begin school late and are assigned to work together on a project for the 50th anniversary of the school. I was initially...more
Ellen
I liked this book. It was a clean, fast and fun read. I don't read a lot of middle grade books so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The story was cute and the characters each have their own issues. There is junior high angst and it was handled in a way that was fun to read. It was nice to see two characters who might not be perfect but were handling their personal struggles the best way they could. Sometimes they screwed up and people got hurt. I enjoyed reading about two girls who didn'...more
Terryann
GREENWALD, Lisa. Reel Life Starring Us. 294p. Amulet Books. Sept 2011. ISBN: 978-1-4197-0026-2. $16.95. F.

Gr 6-9
When Dina 13, arrives at her new school in Long Island, she is ready to be popular, just like she was at her old school. The kids at Rockwood Hills find her very uncool, though, foiling her plans by filling her backpack with potato chips whenever she isn't looking. Dina figures that if she make popular Chelsea befriend her, life will be perfect. When a teacher makes Chelsea team up wit...more
Jillian
Feb 23, 2012 Jillian rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anybody looking for a great young adult novel or a novel that is about today's reality
Reel Life Starring Us by Lisa Greenwald is one of the best books that I have ever read. I know that I say that about a lot of the books I read, but it is true! I loved this novel! I have been reading Lisa Greenwald's novels since her first novel came out around two/three years ago, and I love every single one that I read.

This novel is about Dina, a girl who just moved to New Jersey from Massachusetts. She thought she would just be accepted into her new school like everybody was in her old one, b...more
Cheyenne G.
Dina Gross was popular at her old school so she has to be popular here too, right? Wrong, everybody at Rockwood Hills middle school thinks she's just the new girl with a video camera tapping things. Unlike the most fabulous girl in school ,Chelsea, Dina has been chipped ( getting broken chips in her backpack) more than you can count. Dina is surprised by this schools behavior because at her old school she was taught to behave and to be every bodies friend. Chelsea on the other hand has the most...more
Sloane
Reel Life Starring US by Lisa Greenwald IS VERY GOOD. I like how the author keeps making awesome books that kind of go along with eachother, but they're not exactly the same. I thought that this book was going to be more liked Flipped because it had 2 characters and I thought they would have the same event and have their prospectives. Instead, they would each have an event and then they would talk about it in their shoes. I would recommend this to and girl into realistic fiction, or if they have...more
Juliet Cupcakes
I really liked how the whole book had a lot of different situations and social issues, but kept it moving and flowing. This book has every type of person in it, there's the "nerd new girl" who has no friends, the cute guy, the clique, the over reactors, and there are the people who make everything better. If I were a character in this book, I would be the "nerd new girl" with no friends because I can be very strange to a lot of people, but I would also be the person who makes everything better b...more
Trish
3.5 stars/Fiction; Young Adult


Reel Life Starring Us is a story about Dina and Chelsea. The new student and Miss Popularity of the 8th grade class who assigned to work together on a school project. Dubbed as 'opposites' in their social standing, both girls find out they are not as different as they appear to be on the surface.

Junior High is hard. No matter what the year and I think these types of books bring to light some very real situations that our [female] young adults can identify with. Bein...more
Emily
From Books and Threads.

I’ll be upfront here. I hated middle school. High school (once I got over the “holy crap, I just moved to a new school in the sticks”) was fun, but middle school for me was the worst of all the high school cliches. I’m sure it didn’t help that I carried books like Leon Uris’ Exodus around with me everywhere. So maybe I’m slightly amused about the idea of a tale about people in middle school recognising each other’s individuality and learning to respect it.

Given that situat...more
Clementine
When new girl in school Dina is assigned to work on a video project with popular girl Chelsea, she thinks it’s a great in to the popular crowd. Chelsea’s not interested, and has way bigger problems at home: her dad lost his job, her family is on the edge of ruin, and her parents can’t stop fighting. Dina and Chelsea are thrown together, but will they survive the project–and each other?

Frequently funny and keenly observant about middle school life, Greenwald’s Reel Life Starring Us plays into thi...more
Reading Vacation's Mom
Dina and Chelsea appear to be opposites. Dina is the new girl at the bottom of the social ladder, obsessed with taking random videos.. Chelsea seems to have it all with her designer clothes and an almost boyfriend. When they are paired together for a video project, it is a roller-coaster ride of fireworks and emotions.

Dina faces ridicule from the popular crowd, yet she handles it with dignity. At first, I didn’t care for Chelsea because she was only nice to her small insider group. She was prett...more
Mrs. Nelson's
Greenwald's latest is sweet, uncomplicated fun; as uncomplicated as things can be when you are the new girl at school, that is. Two girls are paired up for a class project: one is popular, the other is the aforementioned new girl (who sadly, isn't super cool). It's a recipe for disaster - did I mention they are middle school girls? But they end up learning a lot about each other and themselves, making this a great, feel-good pick for tween girls!
--Review by Lauren
Rachel
This is the first Greenwald novel I have read and I did like it. It is certainly a positive book for girl middle-readers. The basic plot line is predictable: new girls moves into school, popular girl is paired with her on a project, popular kids mock new girl, new girl and popular girl partner forge a friendship, new girls finds better friends than the popular snobs. That being said...the dialogue is great, characters accurate and the ending totally worked for me.
Renee
I really enjoyed this book and I think it had a lot of appeal for middle schoolers. Dina has just moved from Berkshire, MA to Long Island, NY. At her school she had lots of friends and never felt like an outcast, but at Rockford Hills Middle School it's a different story, there are cliques, getting "chipped," gossip and more to deal with. Dina thinks she may have found a way to make new friends and be "popular" when she's assigned to do a project with Chelsea the most popular girl in 8th grade....more
Linda
Upper elementary and tween. I like this author a lot for girl books. This one is told in alternating chapters of New Girl in Town and one of the It Girls, who are paired for a video project. I liked Greenwald's "My Life in Pink and Green" even more for more fully developed characters and spirit. Once they discover her, I think readers will stick with this author.
Katie Fitzgerald
Unfortunately, though I love the premise, it was hard for me to click with this book. I liked the characters, but it didn't feel like enough happened to them to keep me interested for the duration of the entire novel. I was especially bogged down by the continuous references to the girls' procrastination. It seemed like more than half of their interactions involved the same conversation - Dina wanted to work on the project, but Chelsea had better things to do. There was also the additional eleme...more
Jennifer
It was OK. I did not feel strongly about any of the characters and although they all grew somehow I kind of did not buy it. Middle school romance was well portrayed though. Good for 5-6 graders wanting a “grown up” middle school story about catty girls, popularity, boys etc.
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 16 17 next »
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
Reel Life Starring Us (ebook)
Reel Life Starring Us (Paperback)
Reel Life Starring Us (Kindle Edition)
A long bio can be kind of boring, so instead I'm going to pretend
that a famous journalist (maybe Barbara Walters) is interviewing me.
The only thing is, I'm making up the questions.
If you think of any other questions you'd like me to answer, send me an email and ask away!

Q. Where did you grow up?
A. I lived in Fairfield, Connecticut until the end of fifth grade and then I moved to Roslyn Heights...more
More about Lisa Greenwald...
My Life in Pink and Green (Pink and Green, #1) Sweet Treats & Secret Crushes My Summer of Pink & Green (Pink & Green, #2) My Summer of Pink and Green The Ultimate Baby Owner's Manual

Share This Book

Your website