Pages: 145
Intended Audience: Tweens and Teens
Genre: Real Life / Social Issues
Notes for Parents: None.
The Back Cover
From this moment on, life is never quite the same for Tom and his seventh-grade classmates. Despite Jessica’s shocking appearance and the fear she evokes in him and most of the class, Tom slowly develops a tentative friendship with Jessica that changes his life. Firegirl is a powerful book that shows readers that even the smallest of gestures can have a profound impact on someone’s life.
What the cover doesn’t tell you:
This book was the winner of the 2007 Golden Kite Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature.
What’s good?
This is a beautiful, sensitive narrative about a boy’s first experience with a person who is different – unbearably different. While his time with Jessica, a burn victim, is brief, the experience changes the way he sees things, including the relationship with his unsympathetic best friend, Jeff. It’s a thoughtful story with a good message.
Best Part: Tom’s ideas about what would make good superpowers: e.g. an unbreakable finger.
What isn’t good?
The story lacks any real action, physical or otherwise. There are moments, like the mystery of how Jessica was burned, and waiting for Jeff to show up in the Cobra, that create some suspense, but it’s never really sustained.
Worst part: It’s written a bit young.
Recommendation þþþoo
One reviewer described it perfectly as “a quiet book.” It’s a short, easy, introspective look at a heartfelt moment in a boy’s life. Recommended.
Abbott, Tony. Firegirl. New York
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