Red Glass (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Starred Review, Booklist, September 15, 2007:
"The vivid characters, the fine imagery, and the satisfying story arc make this a rewarding novel."
—Carolyn Phelan

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, October 1, 2007:
"The prose captivates from the first chapter ... a vibrant, large-hearted story."


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review

Starred Review, Booklist, September 15, 2007:
"The vivid characters, the fine imagery, and the satisfying story arc make this a rewarding novel."
—Carolyn Phelan

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, October 1, 2007:
"The prose captivates from the first chapter ... a vibrant, large-hearted story."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (September 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385734662
• ISBN-13: 978-0385734660
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #355,367 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #22 in

  Books > Children's Books > Educational > Explore the World > Fiction > Mexico

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, November 28, 2007

By	TeensReadToo.com "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

Laura Resau's RED GLASS was an amazing read. It's a wonderful mixture of excerpts from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, eccentric people, political unrest, and magical fortunes folded into a cross-continental summer road trip.

Sophie is an amoeba, a free-floating spirit who is not attached to anything besides her family and her books. Then one night she picks up a phone call from the hospital. Seven Mexican migrants and their guide have died crossing the Arizona border. The lone survivor is a six-year-old boy named Pablo who had Sophie's stepfather's business card in his pocket. Pablo comes to live with Sophie, her parents, and Sophie's great aunt Dika, a Bosnian war refugee. Sophie grows to love her Principito, or Little Prince, but after a year her parents get in contact with Pablo's remaining family in Mexico.

Over the summer, Sophie, Dika, Dika's boyfriend, and his son must take Pablo back to his hometown so that he can choose between his new family and his birth family. The trip is hard at first, because Sophie is afraid that anything and everything will go wrong. But the stories and the struggles of her companions change her perception of danger and she grows attached to Ángel despite her fears that she will lose him. When a terrible accident occurs, Sophie is forced to make a dangerous trip by herself. On the way, she realizes that while life has its risks, it is still beautiful and even fun.

I loved this book. One of the things that was really well done was how it was multi-cultural without being culturally exclusive. Even though some of the dialogue was written in Spanish, it was still easy to read. But the best part of the book was its characters. They are both hilarious and tragic, but never melodramatic. At times, I felt as if author Laura Resau was in my head. Teens will identify with Sophie as one of their own.

Reviewed by: Natalie Tsang

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For girls who are going to travel the world/join the peace corps/speak 5 languages/kick butt, November 6, 2007

By	S. Ryan (Fort Collins, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love this book. Sophie is the kind of best friend every girl should have--she's generous, funny, artsy, more than a little neurotic, and really brave. She takes off with a crazy cast of characters on an adventure to die for, traveling from Arizona to Mexico and then into Guatemala to rescue her boyfriend-to-be. It made me want to learn 10 languages and travel around the world. I cried and laughed a lot, and had to look up places on Google Earth! Great read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barbara Kingsolver for the Slightly Younger Set, November 5, 2007

By	L. Patterson (Fort Collins, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Like a Barbara Kingsolver for the slightly younger set, Laura Resau uses gorgeous, sensuous language to create a galloping good story with a timely social theme. Readers will never want this wonderful road trip with its cast of utterly convincing oddball characters to end. Red Glass is a book to fall in love with.