Paradise on Fire
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- USD 7.99
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- USD 7.99
Descripción editorial
From award-winning and bestselling author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful coming-of-age survival tale exploring issues of race, class, and climate change.
Addy is haunted by the tragic fire that killed her parents, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother. Years later, Addy’s grandmother has enrolled her in a summer wilderness program. There, Addy joins five other Black city kids—each with their own troubles—to spend a summer out west.
Deep in the forest the kids learn new (and to them) strange skills: camping, hiking, rock climbing, and how to start and safely put out campfires. Most important, they learn to depend upon each other for companionship and survival.
But then comes a devastating forest fire…
Addy is face-to-face with her destiny and haunting past. Developing her courage and resiliency against the raging fire, it’s up to Addy to lead her friends to safety. Not all are saved. But remembering her origins and grandmother’s teachings, she’s able to use street smarts, wilderness skills, and her spiritual intuition to survive.
BCALA 2021 Best of the Best Book
A Cadmus Children’s Fiction Award for the Green Earth Book Award winner
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Inspired by real events, Parker Rhodes (Black Brother, Black Brother) makes her entrée into climate fiction with the story of narrator Adaugo (Addy), a Black 15-year-old from the Bronx. Living with an overwhelming fear of fire after losing her parents to one at the age of four, Addy copes by constantly drawing maps and plotting escape routes in case of emergency. When Addy's Nigerian Grandma Bibi signs her up for Wilderness Adventures in California, Addy expects to be the odd one out; instead, though, she makes friends and falls in love with nature. But a wildfire soon endangers the woods and the people she has come to cherish, and Addy must count on her maps and newfound survival skills to save everyone she can. Addy's character-driven narrative offers a broad picture of her motivations—including a post-traumatic mindset that's focused on survival—yet leaves little room for the explicit development of relationships on which the story's emotional heft eventually relies. If the negative impact of human activity on the environment sometimes dominates the story, Parker Rhodes believably explores one Black city girl's discovery of the wilderness around her. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8–12.
