Remembering Raquel
by Vivian Vande Velde
List Price:
Our Price: $0.01
You Save: $15.99 (100%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Vivian Vande VeldeEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-11-01
ISBN: 0152059768
Number of pages: 137
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Book Reviews of Remembering Raquel
Book Review: Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Summary: 4 Stars
The facts as we know them: Raquel Falcone was fourteen years old. She was the class "fat girl." She loved her father, and her father loved her. Her best friend was Hayley Evenski. She died when a car hit her as she was leaving the movie theater.
The things we don't know: Pretty much everything else.
Told in alternating chapters that are more like the thoughts and ideas of those who knew her (and those who really didn't), REMEMBERING RAQUEL is a short but powerful story.
We hear from Hayley, Raquel's best friend, who feels that, even though she didn't go to the movies with Raquel that night, she still should have been able to prevent her death. We listen to the girls who now remember themselves as Raquel's friends, even though they wouldn't have given such a fat, invisible girl the time of day in real life (who knew death was such a popularity booster?). We hear from the boy who might have, maybe, one day, asked Raquel out on a date, or to the school dance. We get a glimpse of the older woman, another movie patron, who fears she may have
been responsible for Raquel stepping into the path of that car. We kisten to her father, who had already lost his wife, grieve over the fact that his last words to his daughter were "Yeah, yeah," said in a "whatever" type of voice as his daughter left the house.
Vivian Vande Velde is a great author who has mastered the pace of writing a short, emotional story. It's passages such as the one from Nona Falcone, Raquel's grandmother, that make this book worth reading:
"I've watched Alzheimer's steal my husband's memories, one by one, from most recent to oldest -- so that at the nursing home he'll say, "Hello," as thought I haven't been holding his hand for the last half hour. He'll give the smile that won my heart in high school and say, "Thank you for visiting me. Do I know you?"
Oh, Raquel. Why did God bless him, and not me?"
Pick up a copy of REMEMBERING RAQUEL. You'll be glad you did.
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
Teens Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Teens Books
13 Little Blue Envelopesby Maureen Johnson
HarperTeen; Published: 2005-08-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Far Northby Will Hobbs
HarperTeen; Published: 2004-04-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.54
Price in other shops:
Things Fall Apart: With Connectionsby Chinua Achebe
Holt McDougal; Published: 1999-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.36
Price in other shops:
Holt Physicsby Serway, Faughn
Holt Rinehart & Winston; Published: 2002-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.95
Price in other shops:
Pe Holt Physics 99by Raymond A. Serway, Jerry S. Faughn
Saunders College Publishing; Published: 1999; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.90
Price in other shops:
Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Likeby Jay Williams
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; Published: 1984-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $309.46
Dogsong----INSCRIBED----by Gary Paulsen
Bradbury Press; Published: 1985; Hardcover; Book
White Stallion of Lipizzaby Marguerite Henry
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; Published: 1994-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $176.20
Wings. Aprilynne Pikeby Aprilynne Pike
HarperCollins Children's Books; Published: 2009-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Killers Cousin (Collins Flamingo)by Nancy Werlin
Harpercollins Childs; Published: 2002-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird (Magic Carpet Books)by Vivian Vande Velde
Sandpiper; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.01
Price in other shops:
The Dead and the Gone (The Last Survivors, Book 2)by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Graphia; Graphia; Published: 2010-01-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Red Kayakby Priscilla Cummings
Puffin Books; Puffin; Published: 2006-04-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
The Young Bond Series, Book Two: Blood Fever (A James Bond Adventure, new cover)by Charlie Higson
Hyperion Book CH; Published: 2009-03-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.26
Price in other shops:
Schooledby Gordon Korman
Books; Hyperion Book CH; Published: 2008-08-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.48
Price in other shops:
Tangerineby Edward Bloor
Sandpiper; Sandpiper; Published: 2006-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.56
Price in other shops:
Cloaked in Redby Vivian Vande Velde
Marshall Cavendish Childrens Books; Published: 2010-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.16
Price in other shops:
The Truth about Truman Schoolby Dori Hillestad Butler
Albert Whitman & Company; Published: 2009-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops: