Firegirl

Abbott, T. (2006). Firegirl. Scholastic. 160 pages. ISBN 9780545243902

Primary genre: realistic fiction

Other elements: family, friendship, loss, coming of age

Intended reader age: 8 and up

Synopsis:

Tom Bender expects 7^th grade to be like every other year so far at school but a new student brings unexpected changes. Jessica Feeney was involved in a horrible accident that burned almost of all her body. Tom, like his classmates has trouble seeing past those disfigurements. But, he is also curious, not just about how she got the burns but who she was before, who she is now. When his teachers asks him to bring her the homework one day, Tom gets a glimpse of the girl no one else is trying to see. But these interactions put a strain on Tom’s current friendships leaving him with the choice of doing what he feels is right or what he has always done before.

Review:

Overall I felt this was a pretty spot on representation of how a class would react to a situation like this. If kids have never been exposed to anything like this then there would be that initial adjustment. The book did make it seem like her stay was longer than 3 weeks, so I felt there should have been more kids who tried to engage Jessica, but 3 weeks isn’t really that long of a time. I thought it was strange that the author made the teacher so unsure when she was discussing the new student. I feel there would have been more preparation when it came to getting her into the school, considering it is a private school. That scene just read as too much of a surprise for the teacher so that is why she gave that odd speech.

I thought it was great that Abbott included the ending where Jessica gets to talk to Tom about her feelings on the whole situation. How she is aware of the impact she has but to her after everything she went through and is still going through, how none of that matters. That was a very nice moment because the author kept it fairly real. Jessica gets her moments of saying that it does make her angry, how everyone reacts, but she has come to terms with it. I was trying to think of how different this book would have been if written from her perspective. But, that was another nice thing about it. This is not really the story of Jessica, it is Tom’s and how he learned to be a better person after meeting her. There were never any big moments between the two of them so it did not become overly preachy or didactic.