Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.comFor Tom Bender, seventh grade isn't all that different from the grades that came before. He still attends a private Catholic school, St. Catherine's. He's still pretty much best friends with Jeff Hicks. He still loves the Cobra, a sports car that he spends plenty of time dreaming about. The few things that are different this year? He has great teacher, Mrs. Tracy. Jeff's uncle actually owns a Cobra, and Jeff has promised Tom a ride in it. He's in love with Courtney Zisky, a girl he fantasizes about saving from make-believe situations on a daily basis. Oh, and Jessica Feeney shows up in his classroom. The day starts out regular enough. Morning prayers, the announcement of a class election, and the impending arrival of a new girl in their class. And then things change more than anyone could have ever imagined, because Mrs. Tracy informs her students that Jessica, the new girl, is unlike anyone they've ever met before. Jessica was burned in a fire, a terrible, horrible tragedy, and she looks different than anyone these kids have ever seen. Tom has only a short time to think about what this means before she's there, the Firegirl, hideously disfigured yet someone how still wholly alive. What follows in the few short weeks that Jessica Feeney is in his class has a life-changing impact on Tom's life. His friend's jokes and elaborate stories they've made up for how Jessica got burned no longer seem funny. His daydreams keeping slipping Courtney out and Jessica in. And during the class election, where Tom wanted to nominate Courtney so she'd know how he felt about her, he's unable to say anything at all. He takes Jessica her homework during one of her many school absences, and learns the truth behind how she was burned, and he cries because she's just a kid like he himself is. Even a ride in the Cobra, which Tom has been dreaming about for years, is pushed by the wayside. FIREGIRL is the story of being different, of change, and of acceptance. There are no real happily-ever-afters in this book. Jessica isn't miraculously healed, Tom doesn't morph into a superhero or righter of all wrongs, and the students in Mrs. Tracy's class don't all learn that you can accept people who are different. Instead, this is the story of individual strength, of the internal struggle to balance what you know is right with what is wrong. A very inspiring story, indeed.
I knew a burned guy. He was 5 or 6 years older than I was, and it happened while he was huffing gas. And it's true, whether it's the young kids in Firegirl, or the people I knew at the time when that guy got burned, there's some sick thing where people want it to be the person's own fault, something specifically deserved, so it couldn't just happen to anybody. Like Tom's friend Jeff in the book, kids were cruel even about this guy I knew. I remember my cousin who went to school with the guy's sister showing me in his yearbook where someone had scribbled "Hobby: Roasting marshmallows on her brother's head" next to the sister's picture. A few years later, I worked with the burned guy at a call centre and I thought about what a relief it must have been for him to answer a call from a person on the other side of the country, and to have a conversation with someone who can't see that his face and body are completely burned and scarred and gruesome, and, yes, scary to look at. Firegirl was so true in portraying the feelings and reactions that go along with encountering someone like Jessica. I loved the story and the audiobook reading is especially great.
What do You think about Firegirl (2006)?
This is a great book for helping kids think about what it means to be an outsider. The book is narrated by a Catholic school boy, and tells about the short period of time when Jessica Feeney, a young girl who'd been terribly burned, joined the class. The book doesn't flinch away from hard truths and doesn't lecture or condescend to younger readers. The book openly acknowledges that Jessica, with her hard experience and terrible scars, is not the same as her classmates. It explores the fear and gossip that her differences inspire in her classmates. And finally, the book points out that in spite of all her differences, she is still just a girl, and could get lonely behind all those scars. It's a challenging read, at times touching, and can help start conversations about how to face our unfounded fears when we meet someone like Jessica.
—Meagan
This was an interesting and quick read. When I first started reading the book I really had no idea what it was going to be about. But I'm glad I read it. This would be a great and very powerful book for middle school students to read about accepting people for who they are and not what they look like. It's a great way to get a important message to them, through a book. Tom and his classmates thought they had the perfect life as 7th grade students then a new student arrives, Jessica and everything changes. Jessica has been in a fire and was burned. At first everyone wants nothing to do with her but Tom slowly starts to develop a friendship with Jessica and both of their lives change. In the beginning of the book I hated Tom because he never stood up for Jessica but he slowly warmed up and changed and so did my opinion on him. As for Jessica I liked her from the start. She was a sweet girl who had a lot of her plate and was entering a school were people turned away. I wanted to be there to be friends with her.
—Lindsey
We listened to this on tape (excellently read, by the way) on the way to Utah. It pulled me in right away! It was almost hard to concentrate on the road. Tom is a regular boy in a Catholic school. When Jessica--a girl who was burned almost to death--moves into their class for a few weeks to be closer to a burn specialty hospital, it changes him. He's normal, a little selfish, and scared of the way she looks. The thing that's different about Tom is every time his friends speak unkindly, he gets a sick feeling. He doesn't like interacting with them anymore. Tom's teacher asks him to bring Jessica her homework one day after class. They become friends. A few weeks later, Jessica moves to Boston to be at a different skin-graft hospital. The best part is, Tom is better. He's not perfect; he still was ashamed of associating with the weird fire-girl, but he cared about her. If we listen to those gut instincts, the same kind Tom had, we can take a better path than those around us. Most people have the same feelings, but they ignore them until their conscience is slowly diminished to nothing. That is why other people feel fine mocking or laughing or burning up toy Batmobiles in honor of a burned girl. Hopefully, we can find the strength to pull away from those situations and be kind--even when it's difficult.
—Lizzy
