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Red Midnight: A Middle Grade Novel About Sibling Survival and an Impossible Ocean Journey for Kids (Ages 8-12)

by Ben Mikaelsen

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Sam said: " Red Midnight, written by Ben Mikaelsen, was a great read and had me yearning for more every page. In the book, the main character is a young boy, around 12-years-old, named Santiago. Around midnight, his village is raided by soldiers and a voluminous Red Midnight, written by Ben Mikaelsen, was a great read and had me yearning for more every page. In the book, the main character is a young boy, around 12-years-old, named Santiago. Around midnight, his village is raided by soldiers and a voluminous amount of people were killed along with it. Despite the egregious event, Santiago found a way to escape with his four-year-old sister named Angelina. Before leaving the village, Santiago’s uncle named Ramos, gives him an escape plan. The plan was to get to the U.S. After escaping from the village, the two fearful kids made their way to the village of Los Santos and find the village raided and people killed as well. After making their way through the village, they stop and sleep at their Uncle Ramos’s house. They are awoken by Ramos’s friend named Enrique, who gives them supplies for their tremendous journey ahead. Through the brisk morning, they travel to the shore with Enrique in his boat. Before heading off into the open sea, Enrique wishes them luck and heads back home. Santiago had the hopes of arriving in the U.S in 20 days. This goal unfortunately did not happen, and he and his sister began to starve and become dehydrated. With multiple attempts at catching fish for food, they were left with nothing and had to endure the rest of the trip, with the greatest chance of dying. Ten days or so after they expected to arrive, the made it to Florida, where they made major news and were greeted by everybody there.
The name of the book, Red Midnight, comes from the light of the fires bouncing off the clouds and the time at night the raid occurred. I thought this was a very sophisticated way of incorporating the name into the book. In my opinion, the book was very exhilarating and detailed. Every page had you urging to read the next and I could not put the book down. I read the book in about three days on my own leisure and I enjoyed all of it. There are a multitude of examples of detail in the book I could support this. When Santiago is running away from his village in fear, his Uncle stops to tell him where to go, “Pain makes Uncle Ramos bite his lip until it bleeds.’What you have seen tonight makes you a man,’ he says, his voice weak” (3). The amount of detail Mikaelsen put into this book is just astonishing. I believe that these small imagery details can cause a reader to keep going. Another example of his detail is when Santiago and his sister are in the boat rationing food, “Angelina takes the doll and stares at it. ‘I think the doll is hurt and needs a friend,’I say, ‘Will you help her?’ Angelina turns the doll in her hands and nods. ‘I think the doll is very hungry,’ she says”(144). I found this dialogue very amusing, and it almost brought a good mood to a terrible situation that they were in. Finally, Santiago and Angelina are cutting notches in the boat to signify how many days they have been on the water, “This is the only time each day that I enjoy, because I can count the notches. Each notch means we have survived another day”(166). This line really hit me hard. Santiago is basically saying that the only thing to do to fight the boredom, is to count the amount of days they had a second chance at. These small pieces of dialogue that Mikaelsen added in just make the book ten times better if you think deeply about the things the characters say. In conclusion, I recommend this book for somebody who anticipates adventure and is older than thirteen. Some things in the beginning of the book could be difficult for a younger audience to read because of how real and gruesome it is. Once you pick it up, you will not put it down. I would easily give this book a 9/10. The only thing I thought it needed, was to be lengthier. All-in-all though, great book. ...more "

Mar 19, 2017 08:01PM · see review