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    Looking for Red
    Looking for Red
    Looking for Red
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    Looking for Red

    By Angela Johnson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
    Release dateSep 8, 2008
    ISBN9781439136799
    Looking for Red

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    Reviews for Looking for Red

    3.5/5

    15 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      this book was very interesting and sad I can't believe this what reds family going through I hope they find him soon if he isn't dead
    • 4/5
      It is typical Angela Johnson, which I love; Real, and soft. The characters are all very real, without having to even say much about them. Looking for Red is about grief, and though it is not too heavy, I like the thought process during grief that we see in the main character Mike (short for Michaela). She's relatable, the kind of person that is common to pass by on the streets but maybe doesn't get noticed much. She has a relationship with her missing older brother's best friend, and girlfriend, and it is nice to see how the grief affects everyone. There is something the book which keeps happening, and I don't understand it too much, but I believe it is one of those things that is not meant to be all that crystal clear. Everything important makes sense, though. All in all, a good, brief read.
    • 5/5
      This is an amazing story of a young girl trying to find her way through the grief she feels after losing her brother. Even though this book is most likely written for someone younger than myself I felt so wonderful after reading it. It is such a deep book that really looks at the grieving process of a small family of people who have just lost their son, brother, boyfriend, nephew, and friend. Michaela is the main character and it is hard to not feel for her. She is only twelve but she is so wise for her years. As the book goes on she begins the healing process and you cannot help but be sucked into her story. This is a fantastic read and really tells a tale about life after death that everyone should read.
    • 2/5
      Story of a family left devastated by the disappearance of their son, Red. The author keeps you guessing about whether he's really dead or not, but after the build up, it turns out he's lost his life over a bet for a car. Refernces to several people spotting Red post mortem are never pursued. This book was a let-down after her others.
    • 4/5
      It is typical Angela Johnson, which I love; Real, and soft. The characters are all very real, without having to even say much about them. Looking for Red is about grief, and though it is not too heavy, I like the thought process during grief that we see in the main character Mike (short for Michaela). She's relatable, the kind of person that is common to pass by on the streets but maybe doesn't get noticed much. She has a relationship with her missing older brother's best friend, and girlfriend, and it is nice to see how the grief affects everyone. There is something the book which keeps happening, and I don't understand it too much, but I believe it is one of those things that is not meant to be all that crystal clear. Everything important makes sense, though. All in all, a good, brief read.

    Book preview

    Looking for Red - Angela Johnson

    looking for red

    looking for red

    ANGELA JOHNSON

    Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

    NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY SINGAPORE

    SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

    An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

    1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

    www.SimonandSchuster.com

    This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

    Copyright © 2002 by Angela Johnson

    All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

    SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster.

    Book design by Paul Zakris

    The text for this book is set in Garamond 3.

    Printed in the United States of America

    4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Johnson, Angela. Looking for Red / by Angela Johnson.—1st ed. p. cm. Summary: A thirteen-year-old girl struggles to cope with the loss of her beloved older brother, who disappeared four months earlier off the coast of Cape Cod.

    ISBN 0-689-83253-2

    ISBN: 978-0-689-83253-6

    eISBN: 978-1-43913-679-9

    [1. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 2. Grief—Fiction. 3. African Americans—Fiction. 4. Cape Cod (Mass.)—Fiction.] I. Title.

    PZ7.J629 Lo 2002

    [Fic]—dc21

    2001042846

    For Nancy Church, who will be missed forever—A. J.

    looking for red

    missing

    1

    When I was four, I could read the newspaper backward and upside down. I would stand and read the newspaper and not know I was doing it. Then suddenly everyone realized I was reading.

    It was something that just happened to me. It wasn’t strange or anything. Magic, almost.

    So my brother, Red, started putting me on the back of his bike so I could read the store signs as we flew by. It was speed-reading on wheels. He could never go fast enough. I’d scream, Pedal faster, Red. Pedal faster.

    And he would, laughing the whole time.

    It’s Red who I think of every time I pick up a book, ride my bicycle, or hear someone laugh. Everything was always him. He was always there, and we were always us.

    But then one day my brother, Red, just disappeared from us forever.

    You never know.

    Red.

    It used to be just me and Red. All the seasons along the coast, and seabirds, lobster breakfasts, and the beach all day. There were many summers and so many jars of shells that if I ever left the ocean, I would still feel it in my bones.

    But maybe it’s Red that I feel. Maybe that’s why I see him in the mirror and then I don’t. Maybe I’m not really here, but someplace else where missing brothers walk past dinner tables unseen.

    I’m lucky, though, ‘cause when the house is quiet and my heart is aching, at least I feel something, and I don’t have to leave here and go looking.

    2

    Once Red and I were caught offshore during a storm. We’d sat fishing in the little skiff that our dad, Frank, had fixed for us the summer before, catching so many porgies that both our buckets were overflowing. I remember my feet hung over the side of the Daisy Moon while Red told stories of sea monsters and how the old mapmakers used to think any place not charted on maps had dragons.

    Red knew all kinds of sea stories ‘cause he used to hang around Gloucester with Frank and his friends. Some, fishermen for a living, the others just living to fish. Frank would say that Red was learning the sea….

    Anyway, the Daisy Moon was rocking gently under a Cape Cod blue sky one minute, and about to capsize under ugly, dark skies the next. The following twenty minutes were some of the scariest of my life. Waves crashed and almost swamped us. Red pulled me into the middle of the skiff, tightened my life vest, and told me stories of mile-long fish that laughed and played water polo.

    I remember I held on to Red and buried my head in his chest, listening to his heartbeat. I remember the cold. I remember Reds calming voice.

    A calming voice at ten years old.

    Suddenly there was Frank in the motorboat towing us back to shore.

    I couldn’t get warm for weeks. My mom kept blankets all over the house and filled me with hot cocoa. Red watched and told me stories about the hot desert and how they’d actually found fish bones where there wasn’t any water that anyone could see.

    It took me a while, but I finally got warm.

    Red went back out the next day.

    I stood on our widow’s walk and watched as he pulled porgies out of the bay, waving to me. I worried that a storm would come up again, this time taking Red away forever and beyond.

    It’s seven years now since that cold, wet day.

    3

    My mom, Cassie, walks in looking tired.

    Sometimes I wonder why we live by the ocean, she says.

    Then she drags in two buckets and some paintbrushes from the hall and throws

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