John Behrens

White as Silence, Red as Song John Behrens

Leo is an ordinary sixteen-year-old: he loves hanging out with his friends, playing soccer, and zipping around on his motorbike. The time he spends at school is a drag, but then a new teacher changes that. He's different: his eyes sparkle when he talks, and he encourages his students to live passionately and to follow their dreams. Now, Leo feels like a lion. But there's still one thing that terrifies him: the color white. White is absence; everything related to deprivation and loss in his life. Red, on the other hand, is the color of love, passion, and blood-the color of Beatrice's hair...and Beatrice is irresistible. One look from her is enough to make Leo forget about everything else. But when he discovers that Beatrice has leukemia and that her disease is related to what scares him most, Leo is forced to search within himself, to bleed and to be reborn. And in the process, he comes to understand that dreams must never die, and he finds the strength to believe in something bigger than himself.