Looking for Red [Paperback]

Angela Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003

Twelve-year-old Mike -- short for Michaela -- loves the ocean. The sights, sounds, and smells of her coastal home are embedded in her very soul.

But Michaela loves her brother, Red, even more.

Then one day Red disappears. One minute he's there, the next...gone. No warning. No time to prepare. And Mike must come to terms with that loss or risk never finding comfort in what remains of the life she and her brother once shared.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I think it's like walking barefoot in a room full of broken glass, when someone you love goes away," notes the bereaved young narrator of Johnson's (Heaven) penetrating novel set in a seaside town on Cape Cod. Mike (short for Michaela) initially tells readers, simply and rather enigmatically, that "one day my brother, Red, just disappeared from us forever." Yet as Mike, a middle-schooler, weaves scattered recollections of time spent with her sibling into an affecting account of how she, her parents and Red's closest friends, Mona and Mark, are dealing with their pain, she slowly brings the particulars of the tragedy into focus: only in the conclusion do readers learn of Mike, Mona and Mark's private burden of guilt. As Mike and Mona had cheered them on, Mark had struck a deal to give Red his car if Red swam from shore to a buoy and back but Red disappeared under the water in the attempt. Mike finds solace in intermittent visions of her brother and memories that emerge from the silence with which she often surrounds herself: "I've been listening again to things not spoken. I've been quiet the last few days 'cause I'm waiting to hear." While the elegiac pace and impressionistic prose may challenge many readers, those mourning a loss are likely to find Mike's incisive observations familiar and comforting. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8 Mike, 12, describes what her life on Cape Cod has been like since her older brother disappeared while swimming in the ocean three months earlier. She still sees Red leaning against the shed and in her dreams. She isolates herself from others who are also grieving, especially Red's best friend, Mark, and his girlfriend, Mona, who were there with her when he drowned. In the fall, Mike begins interacting with her friends again and sees her brother less. She finally tells her aunt about the pact that Mark and Red had made: if Red swam out to a buoy and back, Mark would give him his car. Mona had encouraged him and Mike herself had been hopeful he would win the bet. With the secret told, Red walks out of her dreams. The strength of this story is the accurate portrayal of the surreal nature of grief laden with guilt that the three young people are experiencing. Short chapters include scenes that alternate from before and after the drowning, and piecing them together and making sense of them will be a challenge to some readers. Potentially therapeutic, this is not as lucid as similar titles such as Marion Dane Bauer's On My Honor (Clarion, 1986), Eve Bunting's Blackwater (HarperCollins, 1999), and Paul Fleischman's Whirligig (Holt, 1998). -Jean Gaffney, Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library, Miamisburg, OH
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689863888
• ISBN-13: 978-0689863882
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Angela Johnson is the author of the Coretta Scott King Honor picture book When I Am Old with You; as well as A Sweet Smell of Roses, illustrated by Eric Velasquez; Just Like Josh Gibson, illustrated by Beth Peck; and I Dream of Trains, which was also illustrated by Loren Long. She has won three Coretta Scott King Awards, one each for her novels Heaven, Toning the Sweep, and The First Part Last. In recognition of her outstanding talent, Angela was named a 2003 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Kent, Ohio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotions abound, February 2, 2012

By 

Zoe Burns - See all my reviews

This review is from: Looking for Red (Paperback)

I am glad I finallly brought this book home after looking at it so many times. I loved the human essence that this book held. It cemented the idea in me that everyone is searching and trying to cope, there is no set clear path and no one right way. I only set this book down to allow myself to cry. I would definantly reccomend this book to you if your not afraid of your own feelings.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Sadness, July 29, 2008

By 

Marilynn Griffith (Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Looking for Red (Paperback)

Since I love Angela Johnson's work, I sat down with this in the library and read it straight through, pausing to wipe away tears. Though there isn't a happy ending or the usual structure, the beauty of word and setting as well as the bare honesty of what loss is made me smile. It reminded me of Virginia Hamilton's Sweet Whisper Brother Rush from back in the day. Kudos, Ms. Johnson.

5.0 out of 5 stars moving story, November 29, 2006

By 

K. Reiss - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Looking for Red (Paperback)

This novel is a moving depiction of grief, and of the unbearable secrets we keep even from ourselves. I use LOOKING FOR RED in my course on writing fiction for children and teens at Mills College as an example of spare and lyrical writing.