Spies at a Santa Ana Middle School
Novel is the Collaboration of Local Team
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Rosie Fernandez escapes the bullies at her Santa Ana middle school by finding a hiding spot at lunchtime—under the teachers’ lounge window. Although Rosie has plenty of challenges and drama at school and at the home she shares with her abuelita and nearly destitute parents, she soon learns her teachers face a crazy mix of predicaments in their own lives. The conversations she overhears in the lounge are surprising and sometimes shocking: teachers’ suspicions that the assistant principal is drinking on the job; woes in their romantic lives; and much more. When Rosie shares her teachers’ secrets with her new friend Dominique Nguyen, Dominique’s inability to keep a secret creates a complex blend of chaos and comedy.
Spy in the Teachers’ Lounge is the first novel by Santa Ana teacher and former journalist Béa Tomaselli Tiritilli. It was illustrated by Rialto artist Jessica O’Handley and recently released by ABM Publications of Orange.
“I’ve been teaching in high schools and middle schools since 1993, and spent part of that time substitute teaching in Santa Ana,” said Tiritilli, who now teaches full time in L.A. County. “The many fascinating experiences I shared with students and staff sparked the idea for this novel.”
Spy in the Teachers’ Lounge is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble online. Plans are pending to introduce the book to brick-and-mortar stores. More information about the novel and its creators can be found here and here.
Author Béa Tomaselli Tiritilli has a limited number of promotional copies of Spy in the Teachers’ Lounge available to local schools and other nonprofit groups that serve adolescents. She can be contacted at btiritilli@yahoo.com.
