Looking for Red

Ages 10 & up; grades 5 & up

Twelve-year-old Mike — short for Michaela — loves the ocean. She has always lived beside it, and she can’t imagine life without its waves and salty air. The sights, sounds, and smells of her coastal home are embedded in her very soul. Michaela loves her brother, Red, even more. He is synonymous with her life by the sea. Day in and day out it’s Mike and Red. Mike and Red fishing for porgies on the Daisy Moon. Red and Mike cruising up and down the coast with Red’s girlfriend, Mona, or diving off piers with his best buddy, Mark.

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.

In Looking for Red, two-time Coretta Scott King Award Winner Angela Johnson uses the spare and lyrical language for which she is so well known to spin a poignant tale that’s equal parts mystery, romance, and tragedy. It’s the story of how the memories of those we lose can help transform our fears of being alone into a greater appreciation for all that remains.