The Arts-Angels Track 1: Drawn to You

Rock Your Destiny! Gina Santiago is a thirteen-year-old "Nuyorican" with rock star dreams, so when she's accepted into the prestigious New York Academy of Arts and Talents for art instead of music, she's crushed. To make matters worse, the student body at the Upper East Side school is divided into "schollies" (students on scholarship, like her) and "dollies" (rich kids with "dollars"). But Gina discovers that there is one thing that brings schollies and dollies-and dancers, singers, actors, artists, and musicians-together: music! Maybe she can make her dreams come true after all....

“I don't want to be the only Payless shoe in a building full of Pradas...” When Gina Santiago, a thirteen year-old “Nuyorican” with rock star dreams, is accepted into the prestigious New York Academy of Arts and Talents she’s completely and totally bummed. Why? Gina got in for art—not music, like she really wanted. Plus, the school is on Manhattan's Upper East Side (in other words, filled with rich kids) and Gina doesn't think rice and beans mixes too well with caviar! It’s Gina's mother who's all excited. She’s an artist, too, and wants her daughter to follow in her footsteps, instead of those of her father, Michael, who also had rock star dreams but died before ever achieving them. But it’s the footsteps of her guitar hero, Angel “Wings” Dominguez, that Gina really wants to walk in. And wearing a medal of St. Michael the Archangel in honor of both her father and her idol, Gina decides to chase after that dream—even if it means battling her mother, rival guitarists, mean teachers, and snobby frenemies do it.

Like her main character, Gina Santiago, Janel is a Nuyorican who attended a Manhattan high school of the arts as an art major. Unlike Gina, she isn't very good at guitar and doesn't have a rock band to call her own. Truth be told, she never dreamed of becoming a guitarist. Instead, from the time she was a tween she dreamed of becoming a published author of a book series. And you can see that her dream has come true! Her first hint of an idea for the Arts-Angels series began way back when she received a pendant of St. Michael the Archangel for her sixteenth birthday. She lives with her twin sister, Jennifer (who got a pendant of St. Joan of Arc that same birthday but hasn't written any books about it), in New York City.