Author: Christina Diaz Gonzalez
Pages: 288
Genre: Historical Fiction (Cuba/communist revolution)
Audience: Tweens & Teens
Rating: 4 stars: I'd have coffee with this book
My Thoughts:Goodreads Summary:
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?
This book falls in the gray area for audience between tween and teen. The main character is a 15-year old girl in Cuba. I thought this was a well-written story and was at times very moving. I'm not really into historical fiction as a genre, however, and I think I would have been more interested in the story of Lucia's mother or father.
I could see a 13-16 year old really liking this book, although it is heart-wrenching at times. You get a good sense of how quickly these children had to grow up...and this was a much happier ending than most of them got. I think that even for a child, however, some of the tension and fear was watered down. There weren't really enough links to the historical events and details to make this feel real for me.
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