Author: Tony Abbott Copyright Date: 2006
Genre: Realistic Fiction Pages of Book: 145 Pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Reading Level: 5th to 8th grade
Summary: Firegirl is the touching story of a young boy, Tom. On day he gets a new girl in his class, Jessica. However, she is not just any normal girl. She has been badly burned all over her whole body. The kids in his class are disgusted at the way she looks and no one talks to her and they avoid looking at her. Many of Tom’s friends talk badly about her and he doesn’t like how mean they are being to her. One day Jessica drops a picture of a very beautiful girl and her father. Tom picks it up and gives it to her, asking her who that was. Afterwards he regretted saying anything at all worried it was a picture of her before she was burned. However she says that it was her sister that died. Now all sorts of rumors go around about how Jessica started the house on fire that resulted in killing her sister. However, one day Tom is asked to take Jessica’s homework to her house. When he goes there he learns that Jessica is an all right girl. More importantly he learns that the picture was indeed Jessica. She had lied, and the stories about her weren’t true at all. Jessica had been trapped in a burning car after being struck by another car. Tom and her become friends much to the disappointment of the rest of his class. Shortly after she has to move away and Tom is very sad. Though on the bright side, the girl he liked before Jessica, noticed how nice he was to her even when everyone else wasn’t. Tom learned a great lesson from “firegirl.”
Reaction: I really loved reading this book. I think that it has such a good moral to this book that lots of children need. This book teaches children that they need to be kind to everyone. Now days if you are even slightly different than anyone else life can be tough. This book might teach children that it is ok to be different but to keep your head high like Jessica, or be like Tom and be a friend to those who need one. It was a very fast read, as I just wanted to finish the whole book right this minute. The end was a little different than I thought. I was a little disappointed that Jessica moves away at the end.
Problems: The problems that come about in Firegirl are, everyone is mean to Jessica and she has no friends. Also a major problem is that Tom’s best friends absolutely hates Jessica and is probably the rudest of everyone. This causes some major conflicts in his friendship even after Jessica leaves.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book to older elementary aged kids. The language used in it isn’t hard to read but the concept is a little too advanced for younger kids. I think this age group could relate more to this book. I really loved this book and would recommend it for everyone past that age.
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