Evoking the enchanting atmosphere of E.B. White--and just right for reading aloud--Alison McGhee's (the Bink and Gollie series) illustrated middle-grade novel Firefly Hollow is an intimate story of dreams, loss and moving forward.
All Firefly wants to do is fly to the moon. "Imagine walking around on the moon... the way the giants did," she says to her friends in their firefly-only community. "We're never, ever supposed to fly beyond Firefly Hollow," they remind her, since they know full well that giants (humans) must be avoided at all cost. Quite nearby, in the cricket-only community, Cricket dreams of giants, too. He yearns to become a baseball great like his hero, Yogi Berra, and sings "Take me out to the ball game..." Firefly and Cricket form an unlikely alliance when Firefly is drawn to Cricket's song, and Cricket admires Firefly's "aerial maneuvers." When the two tiny dreamers decide to escape their exclusive, hope-squashing communities, they find themselves in the riverside home of the lovely, lonely old Vole, "the last of his kind." The story deepens further when Firefly and Cricket get up-close-and-personal with a "miniature giant" named Peter, a boy who is grieving the loss of his best friend and who welcomes the curious insects with open arms.
McGhee explores emotions in a way that speaks sincerely to young readers. Grief is real. Dreams are a worthy endeavor. And it's okay to worry. Scenes of Firefly Hollow seem to be lit from within, thanks to Denise's old-fashioned, jewel-toned paintings, so intriguing that they inspired this novel. --Cathy Berner, Blue Willow Bookshop