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Looking for Alibrandi meets Arrested Development in this YA screwball comedy about a student exchange gone hilariously, criminally wrong.
Maria Petranelli will do anything to get away from her overbearing Italian-Australian family. She’s over their constant heckling about getting a boyfriend, their unspoken belief that she’s not normal, and their loudly spoken belief that she’s incapable of doing, well, anything. So when her family declares she ‘couldn’t handle living in Italy’, Maria immediately signs up to go there on student exchange. What could possibly go wrong? Well, everything …
Despite months of mental preparation for every possible scenario, Maria is out of her depth in Italy. She struggles with the language, immediately gets scammed, and is bewildered by her growing attraction to Kennedy, the sweet-but-hopeless American exchange student who is determined to be her friend … if only Maria would let her.
When the two girls accidentally witness a crime, Maria discovers just what she can and can’t handle. Being kidnapped in the boot of a car and driven off into the Italian countryside? Maybe. But working out her feelings for Kennedy before it’s too late?
Maria Petranelli is prepared for anything … except this.
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Looking for Alibrandi meets Arrested Development in this YA screwball comedy about a student exchange gone hilariously, criminally wrong.
Maria Petranelli will do anything to get away from her overbearing Italian-Australian family. She’s over their constant heckling about getting a boyfriend, their unspoken belief that she’s not normal, and their loudly spoken belief that she’s incapable of doing, well, anything. So when her family declares she ‘couldn’t handle living in Italy’, Maria immediately signs up to go there on student exchange. What could possibly go wrong? Well, everything …
Despite months of mental preparation for every possible scenario, Maria is out of her depth in Italy. She struggles with the language, immediately gets scammed, and is bewildered by her growing attraction to Kennedy, the sweet-but-hopeless American exchange student who is determined to be her friend … if only Maria would let her.
When the two girls accidentally witness a crime, Maria discovers just what she can and can’t handle. Being kidnapped in the boot of a car and driven off into the Italian countryside? Maybe. But working out her feelings for Kennedy before it’s too late?
Maria Petranelli is prepared for anything … except this.
This year’s winner of the Ampersand Prize for unpublished manuscripts is a contemporary coming-of-age novel that focuses on family and discovering your own identity.
Maria is a deadpan misanthrope who has been stifled by her big, outspoken Italian-Australian family. When they scoff that she couldn’t possibly survive on her own as an exchange student in Italy, she decides that is exactly what she is going to do. Despite her family, she has never learned Italian or how to cook and is absolutely terrible at finding her way anywhere. So naturally, when she arrives in Italy she is a fish well and truly out of water.
At her foreign language school in Rome, Maria meets Kennedy, who is excessively friendly and kind. This naturally makes her suspicious. Maria doesn’t really appreciate Kennedy until she has her first kiss with a boy, who is then exceedingly mean to her. It is then Maria realises she likes Kennedy a whole lot more than any boys. When Maria and Kennedy witness a murder and are kidnapped by the murderers, it sets them off on an adventure where they discover the real Italy but also even more about themselves and their growing attraction.
Awkward, funny and surprising, this student-exchange adventure in Italy gone terribly wrong is an entertaining romp with a gentle queer coming of age. It will be enjoyed by teen lovers of Looking for Alibrandi and comic writing aged 12+.
See what the Readings’ team have to say on the blog, discover related events and podcast episodes.
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This collection covers everything from high school mysteries to high-stakes heists that are guaranteed to have readers racing through the pages!
Explore imaginative, heartfelt and diverse fiction for young adults.