Red Midnight

by Ben Mikaelsen Narrated by Chris Nunez

Overview

When guerrilla soldiers strike Santiago's village, they destroy everything in their path -- including his home and family. Santiago and his four-year-old sister escape, running for their lives. But the only way they can be truly safe is to leave Guatemala behind forever. So Santiago and Angelina set sail in a sea kayak their Uncle Ramos built while dreaming of his own escape. Sailing through narrow channels guarded by soldiers, shark-infested waters, and days of painful heat and raging storms, Santiago and Angelina face an almost impossible voyage hundreds of miles across the open ocean, heading for the hope of a new life in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

JULY 2010 - AudioFile

Chris Nunez gives 12-year-old Santiago Cruz and his 4-year-old sister, Angelina, distinct yet easy-to-understand Hispanic accents in this story of desperate flight from a burning village in the mountains of Guatemala. The children's escape takes them to a cayuco (a cross between a canoe and a kayak) and a dangerous sail across hundreds of miles of open water to safety on a Florida beach. With luck, ingenuity, and courage, Santiago battles hunger, sleep-deprivation, the terrible sun, the unforgiving ocean, pirates, storms, and even "a river of garbage" as he flees guerilla soldiers who are intent on destroying the descendants of the Mayan people. Based on true stories from the height of the Guatemalan civil war in the 1980s, this is a rousing survival story. Nunez keeps listeners grounded in the face of the intense challenges these youngsters face. M.M.C. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-When soldiers burn his Guatemalan village and kill his family, 12-year-old Santiago escapes with his 4-year-old sister, Angelina. Following the instructions of his dying uncle, he makes his way to Lake Izabal, where he takes his uncle's small sailing canoe and begins a terrifying journey north and across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida. The siblings face starvation and dehydration; lack of sleep; strong sun, wind, and waves; and their own fears and sorrows to win their game of Staying Alive. The present-tense narrative suggests the speech of someone whose first language is not English, and Santiago's first-person account makes the adventure even more immediate. The opening scene is memorable, as the burning of the village turns the night sky red. However, the necessary flashback to explain how a mountain boy learned rudimentary sailing and the almost unbelievable details of the children's trip between their village and their uncle's home give readers pause, rather than pulling them into the suspense of the story. At times, the anger in the author's message almost overwhelms the action. "The rich have no conscience," their uncle's friend says. The first Americans they encounter call them "stinking boat people" and tell them to go away from their private beach club. In an afterword, the author explains that the soldiers who massacred villagers were armed by the U.S. government as part of our fight against communism. Thus, we share the blame for such atrocities. In spite of the heavy-handed message, readers who persevere through the first third of the book will be rewarded with a terrific survival story.-Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

In this suspenseful survival story, a 12-year-old Guatemalan boy and his 4-year-old sister escape their burning home, where soldiers have killed their family, and try to make their way to the US. Santiago, who narrates, has grown up poor in a small village of indigenous people who descended from the Mayans. He speaks some Spanish, which helps as he and Angelina make their way by horse and then as stowaways in trucks to Lake Izabal. They find their uncle's cayuco, a small kayak made from a tree, and with the help of a neighbor, set sail. The bulk of the novel takes place on water, fighting storms, evading pirates, and fishing with a homemade hook. Santiago learns as he goes, after only one day's instruction in sailing, and he improvises cleverly, as described in satisfying detail. The boy recovers from setbacks at the same time as he tries to keep Angelina's spirits up despite near starvation and constant danger. The interactions between the siblings show Santiago's courage and love, while Angelina's well-drawn, childlike personality provides moments of lightness as well as pathos. In the beginning, the narrative voice tends to be stilted, avoiding contractions and using inverted sentences such as "This I know she likes." But as the action picks up, Santiago's narration reflects the urgency of their situation as they sail, against all odds, across the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida. Mikaelsen's (Touching Spirit Bear, 2001, etc.) fans, who expect him to produce a gripping tale of overcoming dangers, will not be disappointed. (author's note) (Fiction. 11+)

From the Publisher

Fans who expect a gripping tale of overcoming dangers, will not be disappointed.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A terrific survival story.” — School Library Journal

JULY 2010 - AudioFile

Chris Nunez gives 12-year-old Santiago Cruz and his 4-year-old sister, Angelina, distinct yet easy-to-understand Hispanic accents in this story of desperate flight from a burning village in the mountains of Guatemala. The children's escape takes them to a cayuco (a cross between a canoe and a kayak) and a dangerous sail across hundreds of miles of open water to safety on a Florida beach. With luck, ingenuity, and courage, Santiago battles hunger, sleep-deprivation, the terrible sun, the unforgiving ocean, pirates, storms, and even "a river of garbage" as he flees guerilla soldiers who are intent on destroying the descendants of the Mayan people. Based on true stories from the height of the Guatemalan civil war in the 1980s, this is a rousing survival story. Nunez keeps listeners grounded in the face of the intense challenges these youngsters face. M.M.C. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171937096
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	02/23/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Soldiers in the Night

May 18, 1981
Dos Vías, Guatemala

I try to forget the night they burned my village. Those memories are like clouds in my mind. But sometimes the clouds lift, and again I hear screams and soldiers shouting and guns exploding. A dog barks. Another shot echoes, and the dog is quiet. Then there is more shouting and killing.

I remember my mother waking me that night. Fear makes her voice shake as she pushes my little sister into my arms. “Santiago, wake up!” she whispers loudly. “Run! Take Angelina with you. They have come to kill us. Run!”

And my mother is right. As I stumble barefoot toward the trees holding Angelina's hand, soldiers appear behind me. They carry torches that show their laughing faces as they run through our small village burning every home.

Our homes are very simple, with dirt floors, thatch roofs, and walls made of dried cane stalks that burn easily. When families run from the flames, the soldiers kill them. Their guns sound like machetes hitting coconuts.

In the dark, I run hard, pulling Angelina by the hand. But I trip. When I fall, I drag my sister under bushes at the edge of our village. I look back and see the flames, and I see what the soldiers do to my family and to my neighbors.

I have two younger brothers, Arturo and Rolando, and two sisters, Anita and Angelina. I am the oldest, twelve years old. This night, all of my family dies except Angelina. They are all killed as I watch. I see rape and I see torture. I see things happen this night that I can never speak of.

The night is filled with screams of fear and pain. Tearsfill my eyes when I see my grandfather, Adolfo, try to run. He is old. I look up at the sky because I cannot watch when they shoot him. Above me the sky is cloudy. A thin moon shines through the clouds like a ghost, and I know that tonight the soldiers do not aim their bullets at the moon.

Angelina clings to me in the dark, and I cover her mouth so she cannot scream. I try to cover her eyes, too, but she will not let me. She knows that something very bad is happening.

Something moves in the bushes near me, and I hold my breath. I think it is a soldier, but a voice that I know whispers very loud, “Santiago, keep running!” It is the voice of my uncle Ramos. He lies near me on the ground. His deep breaths sound like a sick horse when it breathes.

“You must come with us,” I say.

“No, I am shot.”

“I will help you.”

“No,” he says. “I am already dead. But you are still alive. Go!”

I nod, but I do not know where a twelve-year-old boy can go with his four-year-old sister. There is no place to run in a country like Guatemala, where everyone is afraid. “Where do we go?” I ask.

“Leave Guatemala. Go as far away as you can and tell what has happened this night.”

“But, Uncle, nobody will listen to me. I am only a boy.”

Pain makes Uncle Ramos bite his lip until it bleeds. “What you have seen tonight makes you a man,” he says, his voice weak. He rolls his body over until he can look into my eyes. “There is a wind that blows and tries to help this country,” he says. “Go now! Be part of this wind. You are the only person who can tell of this evil.”

“But where can I go?” I ask. “To Mexico?”

Uncle Ramos shakes his head. “There are many soldiers north of here. Go south to Lake Izabal. Take the cayuco and sail to the United States of America.” Uncle Ramos lifts his chin. “In my pocket, there is my compass. I have shown you how to use it. Now take it.”

I do not argue. The cayuco is a sailing kayak, something Uncle Ramos is very proud of. I reach into his pocket and find the compass. It feels like a large watch.

Uncle Ramos coughs blood from his mouth. “Remember, the red end of the needle always points to the north. Remember that. Now go!”

I let go of Angelina's mouth and stand. As I turn to run, a soldier sees me. The burning flames from the village let him see my face well, and he raises his rifle. I run once more with Angelina into the forest. Behind me the rifle fires again and again. Bullets hit the trees around me like rocks.

I do not stop or look back. Death is as close as my next breath tonight. I run fast into the black night because I know this trail very well. Many times I have carried heavy loads of maíz, along this trail, from the fields to my village.

“We will find you!” the soldier screams behind me. “Then we will kill you!”

Angelina cannot run anymore and so I carry her. I run even when I cannot breathe, because I am so scared. I do not stop until only the sounds of frogs and crickets fill the night behind me. Then, for the first time, I look back.

The world is not right. Above the trees, I see flames from my village jumping toward the stars. The night sky glows red as if it is burning.

Red Midnight. Copyright © by Ben Mikaelsen. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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