Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

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 listen 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. ( )

This was an original premise, and cleverly done. The only similar story I can think of is After the Death of Anna Gonzales by Terri Fields. In spite of the topic I did not find Remembering Raquel depressing or melodramatic. A wide variety of characters had their say, and I found all the reactions realistic and compelling. A good, solid, beef and barley sort of book. ( )

"Certain kids have a tendency to be invisible." Raquel is that kind of kid, the kind of girl who no one notices. Despite being overweight, Raquel is not the kind of girl who anyone notices. So perhaps it's not too surprising that when Raquel's teacher has to make the worst possible announcement --- that Raquel has been struck by a car and killed. I find that most people who talked in the book were either nice to her, mean to her, or loved her before she died. I think her father and her best friend loved her the most. I was a sad book, but I liked it. ( )

Raquel was a 15 year old who did not make much of a splash at school - quiet, overweight, not many friends. So when she died after being hit by a car, it is interesting to see the number of people who have a comment about her death. This book is written through a number of voices, including people at school, relatives, her father, people who witnessed the accident. What makes this device work for Vande Velde is that the sections are short, with names and how they are related to Raquel at the top. Each voice is also very distinctive. Even though there is a mystery associated with how Raquel died - was it suicide, an accident, or clumsiness - Raquel has left a very full life behind. This copy was an ARC that Jennie got me, and it will definitely find an audience among girls who love Lurlene McDaniel's books. ( )

Raquel went out to the movies and never came back. When she was laughing, reliving one of the scenes with another moviegoer, she stepped off the curb and into the line of traffic. She was hit, and by the time she made it to the hospital, she was gone. The people she was laughing with were all strangers. No one in her family, and none of her friends, were with her. This book is their stories - what they think happened, what they remember last saying to her, how they feel now that she's gone. Like the book says, "How would you be remembered?" DL