Red

Red

YA fiction
"Felicity suddenly realized what they were talking about, and
she drew in her breath sharply. How could this Sienna girl openly
admit to having dyed her hair? This was a public place, and anyone
could be listening..."
Felicity, protagonist of Alison Cherry's amazing debut novel,
Red, lives in Scarletville, a town that calls itself a National
Redhead Sanctuary. In fact it was founded for that exact purpose.
Deep red heads hold all the power in school and town. Folks with
other hair tones, even strawbies, strawberry blondes, are shunned and
treated as second class citizens by the copper tressed elite. Woe be
to arties who are found to get their acceptable color from dye, not
genes!
The highlight of the town social life is the annual Miss Scarlet
Pageant. This year the hype is even bigger. It's the town's seventy-
fifth anniversary. It is also the year Felicity is of age to compete,
a role she has been relentlessly groomed for since birth. Ginger,
Felicity's mother, won the title on the fiftieth anniversary.
Director of the Pageant Committee, she is determined that her crowning
achievement will involve seeing her only daughter follow in her high
heeled foot steps.
At first when Felicity is announced as one of the twelve
contestants it looks like Ginger's plan will come to fruition. Then
Felicity receives an ominous note in her locker. Someone knows her
secret and is willing to use this knowledge to blackmail her.
You see Mommy Dearest, frustrated at giving birth to a strawbie,
has been taking her to have her hair fixed at a top secret dye place
since she was two. If they're exposed...
In addition to the suspenseful plot and believable protagonist,
Red is really thought provoking. Felicity speaks to the plight of so
many young people who have to lead lives of deception because an
innate trait would leave them shunned and disadvantaged in their
communities--unable to achieve their dreams.
On a personal note, red is the color of hearts which gives me a nice
tie in with Valentines Day. It was wonderful. To start with a big
overnight storm slammed us with over a foot of new snow and cancelled
school, even the University. Katie and Adam wanted chocolate chip
pancakes. I found an amazing recipe on the Internet and we had a
lovely early celebration. Hubby gave me a card and a huge box of
chocolates. I baked him chocolate chip cookies by his mother's recipe.
A great big shout out goes out to all the people including the hubby
who will head out soon to deal with the latest storm which is raging
now even as I write this.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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