Rose doesn't want to be a loner; the trouble is she hasn't figured out how to fit in. Daisy, her best friend since childhood, dropped her the minute Rose decided to pursue her dream of becoming a dancer. The loss of the friendship has left Rose feeling confused, lonely and disconnected with life.
"I was black inside and so I took everything black. Toast. Coffee. Clothes. Heart."
Cecil Castellucci's opening lines in the book Rose Sees Red paint the picture quite clearly.
Rose is looking for a fresh start at the High School of Performing Art. For her, there are only two states of being: on pointe, in a heightened world where she could be herself, and in sneakers, where she is nothing. She's hoping that by pursuing her passion she'll meet new friends. After all, she sees plenty of interesting people from school on the subway every morning, but admires them from a distance. But so far friendship hasn't happened, and even though she's trying as hard as she can, she's pretty sure her dancing isn't where it needs to be, either.
Things begin to shift with a random invitation from two of the three triplets, Caitlin and Callisto, to a party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Actually attending the party seems way too farfetched to Rose until her neighbor, a Russian ballerina named Yrena, climbs into her bedroom window, looking to escape from the suffocating confines of home and establish friendship with a real American girl and do real American things, like go to a "big American party" and see what "teenage American decadence" is really like. Rose doesn't want to be a mouse forever, so she takes the plunge into adventure with Yrena, sneaking back out the window with her, past the KGB guards that monitor Yrena's every move, out into the big city.
The party at the museum begins with a confrontation with Daisy, but Rose holds her ground because she's finally got backup. The arrival of all three triplets and other friends from school, including superstar Maurice Tibbets, and Free, the long-haired peace-loving activist, creates a group that is swept up in roaming the city by night, only to later find themselves desperately trying to rediscover Yrena's whereabouts when she disappears with Free.
As the hours tick by, the hunt to find Yrena ends, and she discloses that this is her final chance to experience all that New York City has to offer before she moves back to Russia for good. The group of dancers throws caution to the wind, staying out all night to show her everything they can in the few hours they have left. Rose discovers friendship, romance, and just how lucky she is to live in a free country while she finds the true color of her heart and how to let it blossom in her life and her dancing.
Grier Cooper is a California-based writer/photographer and dancer who has performed worldwide with San Francisco Ballet and Miami City Ballet, among others. She draws on over twenty years of experience as a dancer, teacher and performer to create inspirational fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. For more information about dance, visit her online and sign up for her free newsletter http://www.griercooper.com/
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