In this gripping, moving and life-affirming middle-grade adventure, survival requires not only smarts but also compassion for others, the planet and oneself.
Jewell Parker Rhodes, award-winning author of Ghost Boys, introduces Addy, a Nigerian American teen girl participating in a summer program for Black city kids to develop wilderness skills. "Escape. Survive."--that's Addy's mantra. Her parents died in a fire when she was four, but she lived. Now, on her flight to Paradise Ranch in California, she maps the exits, preparing for an emergency. At the ranch, she avoids the fireplace, trying not to summon unwanted flashbacks. She misses the Bronx and Grandma Bibi, who left Nigeria to raise Addy and who encouraged this trip: "To know yourself, you need to journey, Adaugo." As events lead to a climactic forest fire, Addy endeavors to follow Bibi's words.
Paradise on Fire is a brilliant melding of captivating storytelling and crucial teaching moments; Rhodes also exemplifies how friends can bring out one's latent strengths. Through the kids' candid dialogue and Addy's expressive narration, Rhodes weaves in issues of race and class. Aware of the opportunities they've lacked as Black city kids, Kelvin jokingly calls s'mores "white people's food" and notes the weirdness of sleeping outside. DeShon, cognizant of how "white people's charity" funded the trip, feels like someone's "summer project." Immersive prose adds urgency to Rhodes's message that 97% of wildfires are caused by humans, a topic cited in the afterword as the book's inspiration, along with the 2018 Camp Fire. Inspiring both action and hope, Paradise on Fire heralds the importance of believing in one's own power to make a difference. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer