Author: Christina Gonzalez
Publish Date: May 2010 by Random House
Synopsis: The Red Umbrella is the moving tale of a 14-year-old girl's journey from Cuba to America as part of Operation Pedro Pan—an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children, whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro's revolution.
In 1961, two years after the Communist revolution, Lucía Álvarez still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and her first crush. But when the soldiers come to her sleepy Cuban town, everything begins to change. Freedoms are stripped away. Neighbors disappear. Her friends feel like strangers. And her family is being watched.
As the revolution's impact becomes more oppressive, Lucía's parents make the heart-wrenching decision to send her and her little brother to the United States—on their own.
Suddenly plunked down in Nebraska with well-meaning strangers, Lucía struggles to adapt to a new country, a new language, a new way of life. But what of her old life? Will she ever see her home or her parents again? And if she does, will she still be the same girl?
The Red Umbrella is an amazing tale of family and hope, and what makes it even better, it's based on historical facts.
The Red Umbrella shows a time that many of it's readers wont have any memory of or have any idea what it was like to live during a time when people would even consider sending their children off alone to another country. Christina does a great job of making this very foreign situation very real and approachable. This is also a book that is very age appropriate for a wide verity of YA readers. The Red Umbrella is content wise okay for the younger YA readers (11-13), but yet the older YA readers (14+) will find it relate-able. The Red Umbrella also an excellent teaching tool for teachers looking to talk about the 1960s/family/Cuba and many other topics.
The reader gets to experience life after the Cuban Revolution through the eyes of Lucia. Her family is upper-middle class, her father works at a bank, so Lucia has very few cares in life as the book opens up. The revolution really hasn't impacted her life up to this point. But as people she knows start disappearing and the relationship with her best friend starts to get stained because of the goals of the revolution, the impact of the new reality starts to hit Lucia. Things continue to spiral down and her parents are left with little choice but to send Lucia and her younger brother to the US.
Christina uses this journey from life in Cuba to the US to show the length parents go to keep their children safe, how important the ties of family are, and that family is not just about blood. This is a wonderfully written historical fiction full of emotion and heart that makes me tear up over a red umbrella.
My Overall Rating:
I really love books that are based off actual facts. It really makes the story easier to believe. Everyone keeps raving about this one, I definitely need to look into it!
ReplyDeleteIve been dying to read this, it seems amazing. :) I loved your review, made me want to read it even more!
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