FIREBOY

Two girls battle supernatural forces to save their friend.

Thirteen-year-old Sam is horrified to see her best friend Lorenzo’s face in the flames of a campfire. Lorenzo, who’s been turned into the Human Torch, was last seen months ago, on a mysterious field trip during which an entire seventh grade class disappeared. Sam, who was home sick that fateful day, enlists the help of Meg—the one student who survived the outing. The small-town Alberta girls bond: Sam has lost her mother and lives with her unemployed father, while Meg’s alcoholic mother is largely absent. Together, their survival skills are second to none, which is fortunate, since they must foil Lorenzo’s captors without much help from adults. Sam’s narrative voice reads savvy beyond her years, sarcastically barbed in her defiance against morally corrupt—or simply short-sighted—grown-ups. The edgy humor aligns authentically with the middle school protagonist, although several references to the strict German vice principal’s being a “Nazi” feel uncomfortably stereotypical. The witty chapter titles—“I Wear Ugly Sunglasses During a Car Chase,” “I Find Out I Was Right the First Time”—combine with multiple action sequences to highlight Sam as a quick-thinking problem solver. The friendships in the story are satisfyingly ride or die, and the villains are reprehensibly villainous, sometimes filling the role of the bumbling adult. Characters are largely cued white; the language used to describe supporting characters of color unfortunately sounds othering.

An exciting action-hero adventure centered on a compelling and competent narrator.