To Ann Wagner and Betsy Rosenthal, my genius critique group members. Your brilliance and support (and many of your actual words!) are woven into the fabric of this story. What would I do without you?
To my husband, Bennett Tramer, for all those creatively nourishing and positively essential story-talk breakfasts we shared at Café Zella. I need you as much as Molly needs Pixel! Maybe even more . . .
To my children, Ava and Jeremy, for the lemonade and the spider joke, and for reading this book again and again and giving me such smart notes. You are fantastic writers, wonderful human beings, and I love you both almost exactly the same amount.
To Dan McLellan, Richard Peck, Gayle Forman, Sara Pennypacker, and my darling Thirds, for all the inspiring talks, excellent suggestions, and donated lines.
To Tom Lehrer, satirist extraordinaire, for the lyrics from your song “(I’m Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica.”
To Steven Malk, my fabulous agent, for taking such good care of me. Always.
To Alexandra Cooper, my diligent and talented editor, for your deep insights and excellent guidance. And to the rest of my clever and dedicated team at HarperCollins: Rosemary Brosnan, Kate Engbring, and Alyssa Miele, for helping me birth this baby.
To Myra Cohn Livingston, my incredible poetry teacher and mentor. I know you are up there, with your red pencil in hand, smiling down on me.
And last, but not least, I am grateful to all the awesome readers who take the time to email me, urging me to keep on writing—you give me the courage to face the blank page.
Author’s Note
People often ask me where I get my ideas. Sometimes I know exactly where they’ve sprung from, and sometimes I don’t. But I think I can pinpoint the very first spark of the idea for Saving Red. It happened when I was still a teenager, way before I even knew I’d become a writer. I had learned how to make animated films, and what I liked best about creating those little movies was that I could make my wildest dreams come true on the screen. I could conjure up entire universes and have total control over what happened within them.
I had no control whatsoever over my real life. My first book, Stop Pretending, was based on what happened at that time—when my older sister had a nervous breakdown on Christmas Eve and had to be hospitalized. She was diagnosed as manic-depressive, which would be called bipolar today, and had to stay in the hospital for a few months while the doctors got her illness under control with medication and talk therapy.
But even after my sister was released from the hospital, I continued to worry about her. I feared that she might get sick again, lose touch with reality, and wander away from home into the unforgiving streets of the city, never to be found again. Which is one of the reasons I’ve always felt so moved and troubled whenever I see a homeless person trudging down a sidewalk dressed in rags.
It was this deep concern for the homeless that led to the second spark of the idea for Saving Red. Around fifteen years ago, I began to notice one homeless person in particular—a woman I often saw shuffling along Montana Avenue, the main street of my neighborhood, mumbling to herself, stopping now and then to shine the rims of trash cans with a grimy cloth. Her short gray hair was matted, her skin red and raw from exposure. She wore mismatched shoes, shredded pants with boxer shorts showing through, and a filthy flannel shirt with sleeves that hung in tatters at her swollen wrists.
One day when I saw this woman, I suddenly remembered the old pair of walking shoes stashed in my closet, the long denim skirt a friend had given me that was too big in the waist, and the T-shirt and jacket I’d been planning to donate. My heart began to race. I pictured the homeless woman wearing these things—she’d be so much warmer during the approaching winter. . . .
I hurried home and gathered the clothes into a bag, imagining the startled look of gratitude that would light up the woman’s face when I presented them to her. Then I hopped back into the car and drove down Montana Avenue until I found her, scrubbing a trash can in front of a coffee shop. I parked, strode up to her, and offered her the bag. She peered into it briefly, with mild interest, then pulled back and murmured, “No thanks. I better not.”
Of course, I didn’t know it then, but that was the instant that Red was born. I hope her story has moved you.
Resources
If you are homeless or suffering from mental illness or trying to help someone who is dealing with either of those challenges, here are some great resources:
Homeless Shelter Directory
If you are looking for a safe place to sleep, this directory can help you find the nearest shelter.
www.homelessshelterdirectory.org
Feeding America
If you are hungry, you can type your zip code into this website to find a local food bank.
www.feedingamerica.org; 800-771-2303
Free Clinics
If you are sick, this website will help you find free medical care, wherever you are.
www.freeclinics.com
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
If you are in crisis, please call this number right now. They are there for you 24 hours a day, and they can help!
www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org; 800-273-8255
National Runaway Safeline
You can share your story with these folks 24/7 and get help from someone who has been trained to give you the support you need. All calls are completely confidential.
www.1800runaway.org; 800-RUNAWAY (800-786-2929)
Miracle Messages
This group helps homeless people record short video messages to help them reunite with their loved ones via social media.
www.miraclemessages.org
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
America’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to helping people affected by mental illness, and to obliterating the stigma associated with these diseases.
www.nami.org; 800-950-6264
Strength of Us
An online community designed to inspire young adults impacted by mental health issues to think positive, stay strong, and achieve their goals through peer support and resource sharing.
www.strengthofus.org
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About the Author
Photo by Bennett Tramer
SONYA SONES has written five other novels in verse: Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy; What My Mother Doesn’t Know and its companion, What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know; One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies; and To Be Perfectly Honest. Sonya’s books have received many honors, but she was especially thrilled when she learned that she was on the American Library Association’s list of the Most Frequently Challenged Authors of the 21st Century. She lives near the beach in California. You can visit her at www.sonyasones.com or write her at
[email protected].
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Books by Sonya Sones
Stop Pretending
What My Mother Doesn’t Know
One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies
What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know
To Be Perfectly Honest
Saving Red
Credits
Cover art © 2016 by Nina Masic / Trevillion Images
Cover design by Kate J. Engbring
Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
SAVING RED. Copyright © 2016 by Sonya Sones. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and
read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.epicreads.com
* * *
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016935901
ISBN 978-0-06-237028-0
EPub Edition © September 2016 ISBN 9780062370303
* * *
16 17 18 19 20 PC/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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Sonya Sones, Saving Red
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