"Firegirl" by Tony Abbot

Abbot, Tony (2006). Firegirl. New York, NY: Little Brown and Company.

2007-2008 Bluebonnet Award Master List

Tom is a seventh grader at St. Catherine's School when a new student named Jessica becomes part of his classroom. Jessica stays only for a few weeks and leaves, but the impact she has made on Tom, his teacher, and each of his classmates is so great, that no one will be the same again. You see, Jessica is a burn victim who has been disfigured to the point of almost not seeming human. She forces each person in the room to deal with her shocking appearance and forces them to take a really long look inside themselves and really find out what kind of person they really are.

I could not put this book down from the start and I just had to read and find out how Tom, Jessica, and all others actually were going to deal with what was presented to them. This book was powerful in examining what is truly important in relationships, whether they are close or just relationships of acquaintance. Author Tom Abbot is superb at understatement and powerful insight in this book. The characters are so well developed that they seem extremely real which helps force the reader to deeply care for the persons they are reading about! I made a very small impromptu booktalk about Firegirl just yesterday, and today several students had started reading the book and have been asked by many others to hurry up and finish!