Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Aug 18, 2011

Cara rated it:

Ok, so I have to admit that when I started reading this book I wasn't clicking with it the way I wanted to. Looking back the problem was that I had an expectation of how the tone of the book should be like, but that's unfair to the book. I let my expectations fall to the wayside and I'm so glad I did.

Our protagonist, Lucia Alvarez, is living in Cuba at turbulent times when Fidel Castro is rising to power and families, friendships, and a sense of country are rapidly falling apart. Luc More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2011

Diana rated it:

Fourteen-year-old Lucia and her seven-year-old brother Frankie live in a small town on the beach in Cuba. They are seeing changes in their lives since Castro has taken over. First non-Cuban priests and nuns were deported and as the book starts the private or parochial school they attend has been closed down. Lucia, glad for the unexpected vacation of no school changes her mind when returning from an errand to the pharmacy, she passes through a park sees the pharmacist who has been lynched hangin More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2011

Juju rated it:

I knew the stories and I knew the hardships. I grew up with my mother telling me about the foods rations and conditions. But it took Christina's book to help me really see Cuba through the eyes of a child. What I found there was a beautiful story of loss and the ties that bind. I gasped, cried, smiled, and cheered while reading this book. The Red Umbrella is beautiful, tender, heartfelt, and I recommend it to everyone.

Review Copyright © of Tales of Whimsy.com

To read my review More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 21, 2012

Patricia rated it:

Lucia likes bright red nail polish and skirts that swing. She reads Seventeen Magazine like a typical American teenage girl. But she is not American, and her life is not typical. It is Cuba, 1961, and Lucia’s beautiful, romantic world is being destroyed by the revolution. Lucia’s friends have all joined the Jóvenes Rebeldes and the cute boy from math class acts like an arrogant brigadista. Her parents now whisper behind closed doors and won’t let Lucia and her little brother, Frankie, outside t More...

0 comments like

Jan 09, 2012

Eric rated it:

The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez is a thrilling story that gives a sense of what life was like for both those in Cuba and those who were from Cuba but in America during Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution. Although the book itself is fiction it is based on the story of the author’s parents who, during the revolution, were among the over 10,000 unescorted minors sent to America through Operation Pedro Pan.
The book begins with the 14 year-old Lucía in her hometown in Cuba. Sh More...

0 comments like

Jan 08, 2012

Will rated it:

The Red Umbrella captures the complex Cuban Revolution through young girls eyes. Lucia is going through what many young people are going through right now in the Middle East, and that is change. This change can be for the better or for the worst. Lucia’s personal life swiftly changes as the book and revolution progresses. She watches as her friends and family get torn a part by the sides of the revolution. “It stinks when family betrays you. It happened to us too. I think it was my mom’s co More...

0 comments like

Jan 08, 2012

Alex rated it:

The Red Umbrella is a very good, well-written book, that intertwines a little bit of Cuban culture with the troubles of the Castro-run revolution, presented through the eyes of a 14-year-old girl.
This book starts out with Lucía and her family all living a happy life, but then Lucía and her brother, Frankie, start to see soldiers, who are part of Fidel Castro’s revolution, in their town. Members of the brigades and other people in support of the Castro-run revolution start to take More...

0 comments like

Aug 26, 2011

Lauren rated it:

14-year old Lucia lives with her family in Cuba in 1961, in the time of the great Communist revolution. Her life is increasingly affected by Castro's rule, until it reaches the point that her parents send Lucia and her little brother to the United States. The two become a part of "Operation Pedro Pan"- a real program- and are adopted by foster parents in Nebraska. The siblings face a major adjustment period with a new language, new family, and new school. They are later reunited with t More...

0 comments like

Jul 25, 2011

Fred rated it:

In the Red Umbrella, two middle class children from a small town in Cuba are sent by their parents to the United States, where they live for many months in foster care on a Nebraska farm. The 14-year old girl and her younger brother were part of the Operation Pedro Pan migration of Cuban children to the US during the first years of the Castro regime.

The author does a great job of translating the political issues of the time into concerns comprehensible to the young readers for whom she More...

0 comments like

Jun 22, 2011

Patsi rated it:

I have a friend whose family fled from Cuba when Castro came to power, and her stories have mesmerized me for years. I keep telling her she needs to write a book, but she has no interest in doing that .... So I was thrilled to discover that someone else has filled that void in children's lit. Christina Gonzalez has managed to communicate some of the horrors that accompanied the political shift without ever swamping her readers in grief. Instead, you develop a personal connection with the teenage More...

0 comments like

Feb 26, 2011

Marcy rated it:

When you read this book, you will gain a greater understanding of Cuba's revolution, and the impact it had on people who lived in Cuba who were "eliminated" because they did not buy into Castro's Communist government. In the early 60's, Cuban children were being removed from their parents' homes to be indoctrinated in government boarding schools. Lucia's father, considered an anti-revolutionary, lost his bank job and through family betrayal, had all their hard-earned jewelry and pos More...

5 comments like

Oct 05, 2010

Cindy rated it:

During the midst of the Cuban Revolution in the early 1960s, thousands of children were sent alone to live with relatives or be taken in by aid agencies in the U. S. The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, tells the fictional story of two of these children.

When the revolution first began, life didn’t change much in the Alvarez household. Lucia still read fashion magazines with her best friend Ivette, and Lucia’s little brother Frankie liked riding his bike and spying on soldiers More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 01, 2010

Liza rated it:

This book was marketed very poorly. From the cover to the story itself, the whole book would have done better as adult memoir/fiction for the women's book club crowd.

The story of two Cuban children sent to America to escape Castro's reign of terror in the early 60s was oddly sweet and idealistic. Gonzalez hints at the really bad stuff, but mostly stays away from it.

The red umbrella itself as a device was used perfectly - simply and sparsely. Each time the umbrella was More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 13, 2010

Diane rated it:

It's 1961 Cuba and things are changing rapidly. There are rumors of people disappearing, schools have closed, white collar/educated adults are losing their jobs, young people are being recruited to take Castro's message to the masses. 14 year old Lucia and her brother Frankie are noticing the changes, but other than some restrictions on their activities, are not really affected much. Until Lucia returns home after witnessing an execution in the town square. When the police come to the house More...

0 comments like

Aug 13, 2010

Pam rated it:

I'm still digesting this book as I knew next to nothing about this period in history (Castro's revolutionary Cuba) and the author gives you a lot to think about.... Lucia is a 14 year old girl living in Cuba in 1961, who loves fashion magazines, day dreaming about boys, and dances, as Castro's revolution comes to her small village. Friendships, families, and ways of life are wretchedly changed. When it is no longer safe for Lucia and her brother, her parents send them to the US as part of Ope More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2010

June rated it:

It's the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. Castro is engaging followers that the USA is filled with cheaters. Lucia and Frankie, children of a affluent family, begin to see things in their daily lives that encourages them to ask questions to their parents. Even extended family members seem to be different. One day, Lucia is asked to go to the pharmacy because her brother is ill. On her way home, she witnesses the lynching of the pharmacist because the revolutionaries believe that he is sympathe More...

0 comments like

Jul 17, 2010

Cjrayl rated it:

Gonzalez, Christina Diaz. 2010. The Red Umbrella. Alfred A. Knopf. New York: New York.
ISBN: 970375861901
Historical, realistic fiction
Grades 6 - 12

Lucia and her little brother are sent out of Cuba to escape the Cuba regime and being sent to camps for reeducation. Once in Miami, they are briefly separated but come back together when sent to live with an elderly couple in Nebraska. During this time they learn English, the ways of a farm, and what the United States is really More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 07, 2009

Kay rated it:

I've been wanting to read The Red Umbrella ever since I saw the deal announced and was lucky enough to get to read an ARC. There was something about the premise that struck a chord with me from that first announcement, and I knew it would be special. I just didn't realize why until I started reading.

I'm a second generation American. My grandparents immigrated just in time for the Great Depression (not great timing, to be sure). The Red Umbrella made me appreciate my own heritage More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2011

Doret rated it:

14 yr old Lucia Alverez is excited about an unexpected break from school, thanks to Castro's revolution. Lucia's parents fear for her safety. Lucia and her younger brother Frankie can't leave the house. When Lucia and Frankie sneak out, they see their dad's boss interrogated and threatened by Castro's men. Slowly, Lucia begins to realize the Cuba, she knows and loves is changing. When Castro came into power, family and friends became enemies. Lucia and her best friend Ivette, grow apart. Ivette More...

0 comments like

Sep 19, 2010

Julie rated it:

It is 1961, and Lucía’s thoughts are on fashion, fun, and her friends; she daydreams about handsome Manuel and her upcoming quinces, the party celebrating her 15th birthday and coming-of-age. She has heard some things about the revolution transforming her country, but things seem very much the same in her small town in Cuba. When soldiers come into Puerto Mijares at the opening of the book, however, things start changing: we see the secrets, distrust of former friends, and fear creeping into More...

0 comments like

Aug 19, 2011

Josiah rated it:

Now here's a book definitely worthy of a "Wow" reaction. In this her first published novel, author Christina Gonzalez has given us an enthralling and insightful look behind the red curtain of communism during its formative stages of the early 1960s on the island nation of Cuba. In those beginning days of the increasing influence that socialism was coming to have in Cuba, it's clear that the people who lived there were only starting to understand the ghastly specter that was coming d More...

0 comments like

Sep 03, 2011

Jenny rated it:

Very well told story - I enjoyed the point of view of Lucia. I would recommend this book to anyone - I have know for ages about people taking boats to Florida from Cuba, I actually knew a girl (ages ago) who had done this herself. But I didn't know anything about this operation to send children to America ahead of their parents. What a difficult decision to make - there were several spots in the book that caused me to tear up just thinking of how difficult it was for the mother to send her two p More...

0 comments like

Aug 01, 2010

Valerie rated it:

Good old historical fiction never fails. Lucia is our girl of interest. Time period is the 1960s however this isn't about the civil rights movement it's about Operation Pedro Pan because of the Communist Movement going on in Cuba.

Lucia seems to be average but spoiled in the beginning of the book. This annoyed me. I guess it's realistic since she is fourteen and basically has had (up until now) a fairly carefree life but it was still off putting. Once problems start arising and Lucia More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

this is a little known history of the u.s. and for that i liked it. the story centers around the alvarez family. they live in cuba circa 1961 when castro's take over is imminent.

the parents of lucia and her younger brother frankie make the painful decision to send their children to the u.s. without them before castro decides the children of cuba's fate.

lucia and frankie find themselves first in miami and then in a small town in nebraska. the older couple that takes th More...

2 comments like

Oct 01, 2010

Erin rated it:

One of those books where the topic is more interesting than the writing, which is rather mediocre and often didactic. In Cuba 1961, Fidel Castro has taken power and his communist movement has spread to the towns, where Lucia is from. Her parents are wary of the forceful nature that soldiers have overtaken the town and do not let Lucia attend the youth communist militaristic meetings. Although they are not "anti-revolutionaries," they are seen that way for their unwillingness to partici More...

0 comments like

Sep 07, 2010

Heather rated it:

This book got off to a little bit of a slow start for me. But once I started to get wrapped up in Lucia's world, I became absolutely fascinated with everything that was going on in her life, and I ended up reading it in less than 24 hours. I have to admit that I knew nothing about this exodus of children, and know very little about the Cuban revolution at all, so this book taught me a lot. The newspaper headlines that led the chapters provided an excellent historical context to the narrative - t More...

0 comments like

Feb 08, 2011

Tahleen rated it:

Lucia Alvarez is your typical teenage girl. She loves fashion, is excited to start wearing makeup, dreams over her crush. But she is not a modern teen in America—she lives in Cuba in 1961, the beginning of Castro's revolution. She notices things in her safe community of Puerto Mijares start to change: people are disappearing, losing jobs, and joining brigades supporting the revolution. Even her best friend starts to support it and forget about the things that once meant something to her.

More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2011

Mary rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Mar 21, 2010

Abby rated it:

It's 1961 and Fidel Castro has taken over Cuba. At first the Revolution is fun - Lucia and her younger brother Frankie get a vacation from school because the private schools have been closed. Lucia's planning on shopping and hanging out with her best friend Ivette. But her parents won't let her go out. And they won't let her join the youth movement of the revolution like many of Lucia's friends. And soon Lucia starts to see the darker side of the revolution. When the danger becomes too great, Lu More...

0 comments like

Mar 24, 2010

Angela rated it:

The Red Umbrella is an excellent story about the Cuban-American experience of a young teen and her family in the period just after the Cuban communist revolution. It's value is historical, it's appeal is universal, and the story a remarkable one.

Gonzalez uses the striking image of her mother's red umbrella to express a range of emotions that add to the descriptive elements of people and places. Her careful use of the this image will be accessible to and appreciated by readers young More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

reviews