Rose Sees Red [Hardcover]

Cecil Castellucci (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2010

Partly based on the author's own experiences at the famous Manhattan high school for the performing arts, this novel explores friendship, freedom, and the art of challenging convention.

Set in New York in the 1980s, this story of two ballet dancers (one American, one Russian) recounts the unforgettable night they spend in the city, and celebrates the friendship they form despite their cultural and political differences.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 7-10–Rose wears all black, drinks her coffee black, and views the world as black during her friendless fall semester of ninth grade. She only feels truly alive when she dances, but dancing doesn't come easily in New York City's high-pressure High School of Performing Arts. It's 1982, with political tensions between the U.S. and USSR running rampant. When her neighbor whom she has never spoken to, a Russian teen named Yrena, sneaks into her bedroom window, Rose embarks on an adventure that not only brings new friendships, but also opens her eyes to the world around her and to the value of her own talents. The protagonist is a complexly layered character who suffers from crippling sensitivity, and her difficulty feeling at home in her body will resonate with teens. She is honest, funny, and completely authentic, and it is magical to see her dark world bloom with color. Her former best friend is similarly well drawn; Castellucci depicts Daisy's unbelievable meanness and manipulation, and the pain it causes Rose, without giving their story a happy ending. Unfortunately, the 1980s setting is unclear in the early chapters, and some youngsters might feel at sea when Reagan-era politics pops up in a novel that feels contemporary. Aspects of the plot seem undeveloped, such as Yrena's near-imprisonment in her own home. However, the prose is poetic and rich. Advanced readers will glide and pirouette through this delightful novel.Jess deCourcy Hinds, Bard High School Early College Queens, Long Island City, NY
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Bronx teen Rose, defined by friendlessness and ballet, is moping alone as usual one Friday night when the girl who lives in the Russian-inhabited apartment complex next door sneaks through her window. Yrena wants to experience normal American teen life, and Rose impulsively decides that she might be able to show her. They head to a party downtown and make friends with some unattainably cool kids from Rose's performing-arts school as they embark on that timeless teen rite of passage: the all-night caper, fueled by exhilaratingly ignoring the trouble they'll be in tomorrow (though, admittedly, it being the Cold War and having the KGB and CIA involved make their particular trouble a little hotter). Castellucci (Beige and The Plain Janes, both 2007) works with her familiar raw materials of artsy outsider kids and the group dynamics of teen friendship. She really doesn't have an un-hip strand in her writer DNA and proves that even a story set in 1982 with its legwarmers and Reagan-bashing can still feel fresh. Grades 9-12. --Ian Chipman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (August 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545060796
• ISBN-13: 978-0545060790
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,732,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Small Girl. Big Party. Author of the novels The Year of the Beasts, First Day on Earth, Rose Sees Red, Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool, Beige and The Plain Janes. Former indie rocker known as Nerdy Girl and Cecil Seaskull. DIY filmmaker. enfant terrible. modern 21st century flapper.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of The Figment Review at Figment[dot]com March 27, 2011

By The Figment Review

Format:Hardcover

by Kat Alexander

There are certain things Rose has learned living next to the Soviet compound in the Bronx, New York, in 1983. How to tell the KGB from the CIA, for instance (it's all in the eyebrows). Also, that world powers can act an awful lot like children.

Not that Rose cares all that much. Tagging the suits as KGB or CIA is fun, as is watching Yrena, the Russian girl next door. But Rose has other things to worry about: school at the Performing Arts Academy, avoiding former best friend Daisy, et cetra.

Rose sees the world right now as being black-no friends, no hope, and the Cold War raging on.

Nothing like a night on the town with people she barely knows to bring some color into it, eh?

Out of the one-nighter sort of books I've read, I think this one may be my favorite. I adore Rose. I adore her frankness, I adore her real-ness, I adore the way that she cares about the Cold War without being an international affairs buff. I adore her friends. I love Caleb to death. The characters as a whole are original, real, and refreshing-people I'd want to spend time with.

Not to say they're all nice people, of course. There's got to be someone awful and nasty. Daisy, in the case of Rose Sees Red. Still, while she's mean and nasty and all, she still brings something to the table-she evokes memories of mean and nasty people I've met, and presents some interesting challenges for Rose herself.

The tale itself is gripping. There's a decent amount of set-up time before the story takes off, but it's nothing terribly long and once it really got going, I could hardly put the book down. Set in 1983, it's still relevant to now, and easily relatable. After all,it's not like the Cold War was really that long ago, even if, well, at least four countries that existed at the time are no longer. Maybe the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1990, but teenagers didn't.

Nicely crafted, great characters, great story, and pretty short. Overall, a pretty good book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Goddesslibrarian January 26, 2011

By goddesslibrarian

Format:Hardcover

Rose is a dancer at the school of Performing Arts and like most teenage girls she's struggling to find her way. She's never been very good at making friends mostly because she's been under the control of her best friend Daisy for years. But when Rose offends Daisy in the worst possible way--by having her own opinion and making a decision without her--Rose is left alone and friendless. She doesn't know how friendships work because she never really had one with Daisy. She was Daisy's puppet, not really her friend. All of that changes one fateful day when Rose smiles at the neighbor she has seen for years but never talked to. That one smile snowballs into a tentative friendship, solidified during the course of one crazy night in NYC. Unfortunately this is NYC in 1982 during the height of the Cold War and Rose's neighbor is the daughter of a Russian diplomat.

Castellucci's characterization of Rose is spot-on. Rose is a realistic floundering girl. The description of Rose's emptiness and blackness because she doesn't have a true friend and feels like she doesn't belong is heartbreaking and genuine as is the shy hopeful joy she feels when the hole within her chest begins to heal and close with each new connection she makes. It's not just Yrena (the neighbor), but also a few school friends, who see Rose as she can be and help her out of the dark.

I managed to read this in one sitting, during a particularly pleasant nap/quiet time. I couldn't stop reading. Seeing Rose, well, blossom (no pun intended) was beautiful and poignant. I've read many books about teenage girls looking for acceptance and friendship, but Castelluci has really nailed the description of just how dark and depressing it can feel and how all it takes is for someone else to make a little extra effort to completely change things. I also love the title--Rose is stuck in her black friendless world and then sees the color red, a color not only associated with roses but also with communism and Russia. This is definitely a girl book, I don't see many boys (unless they are really thoughtful sensitive types) picking it up, but I heartily recommend it.

3.0 out of 5 stars Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castelucci August 23, 2012

By Brianna Soloski

Format:Hardcover

Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castellucci
197 pages
3/5 stars

Rose Sees Red tells the story of Rose, a ballerina who is trying to find her place both on stage and in her typically teenage life. She meets her neighbor, Yrena, in person for the first time more than two years after Yrena moves in. They go on an NYC adventure that has the potential to rival any other. Yrena is from Russia and although she hasn't defected, she is being watched. Rose and Yrena bond over an unforgettable night in NYC - from a party on the steps of an art museum to a nuclear arms protest in Central Park.

I've hit on a few really good books in a row lately and this was one of them. In less than 200 pages, Castellucci weaves together a beautiful story of friendship and coming of age in 1980s New York City. The story could easily have been about adults, but I don't think it would have been as effective. Rose and her friends are typical teenagers who attend a performing arts high school. It's competitive and Rose is convinced she doesn't fit in. As we follow her through New York, we find that she not only fits in, but comes away with a group of friends who will last through high school and beyond.

Despite being born in 1982, I don't know much about what went on in Russia/the Soviet Union during that time. I took history classes in high school and college, but it wasn't my major and I took for granted a lot of what I should have been learning. Now, hindsight being what it is, I wish I had paid closer attention. One thing I would have liked to see in Rose Sees Red is more from Yrena's side of the story. I think it would be good for teens and young adults reading the book to get a bit of a history lesson.

I really enjoyed this book and finished it in just over a week, although it could have been read in a couple of days if I'd had more time to dedicate to it. I would definitely read other books by Castellucci - one thing I liked was that, despite it being young adult fiction, she never talks down to the reader or makes them feel like the topic at hand is out of their reach. Also, the characters were not ditzy teenagers interested only in boys. If they had been I don't think they would have attended the protest in the park.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the publisher. I was not compensated in any way for my review and all opinions are my own.