"This heartfelt YA feast sees an aspiring teenage chef strive to cook-up a sweeter-tasting future for her and her Babygirl."
From the one-of-a-kind author of The Poet X comes a one-of-a-kind novel suffused in YA’s finest features - friendship, shifting family relationships, fighting to find your voice, romantic passion – and more besides, thanks to the exuberant drive of its teen mom protagonist.
Emoni has an extraordinary gift for creative cooking and a complicated home life. Her mom, whose family is “straight-from-the-Carolinas Black” died in childbirth, which caused her grief-stricken Puerto Rican dad to head home to his island. As a result Emoni was raised by his mother, the fabulous ‘Buela. Emoni is used to hearing other people’s problems with her dual heritage (“it’s like I’m some long-division problem folks keep wanting to parcel into pieces, and they don’t hear me when I say: I don’t reduce, homies. The whole of me is Black. The whole of me is whole”), but since falling pregnant in her freshman year she has a new set of struggles to contend with.
It’s not easy being a teenage mom while also studying, working and dealing with Babygirl’s judgmental paternal grandmother, but somehow Emoni keeps it all going, finding soulful solace in the kitchen: “I’m happier in the kitchen than anywhere else in the world…my food doesn’t just taste good, it is good – straight up bottled goodness that warms you and makes you feel better about your life”.
Enrolling on a culinary arts class makes Emoni even more determined to accomplish her gastronomic career goals, and also brings her heatedly close to new boy Malachi. But with multiple obstacles at every turn, when life reaches boiling point her best friend and family step-up as supporting sous chefs.
Spiced with inspirational wisdom (“Taking risks and making choices in spite of fear – it’s what makes our life story compelling” says one of Emoni’s teachers; “The world is a turntable that never stops spinning; as humans we merely chose the tracks we want to sit out and the ones that inspire us to dance,” says Emoni), this luminous novel challenges multiple stereotypes and dances to its own love-infused, inspirational beat.
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Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago's life has been about making the tough decisions--doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness.
Even though she dreams of working as a chef after she graduates, Emoni knows that it's not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Yet despite the rules she thinks she has to play by, once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free.
With recipes liberally sprinkled throughout the book, this is a story that reaches for the soul and shows a glimpse of the richness of life… even for those the reader might want to initially stereotype.
With a commitment to following her dreams, a desire to break free from both wider society and her community’s expectations, Emoni shares the story of her heart; of creativity and determination, of obligation and sacrifice, love and resilience.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed With the Fire on High and determined it is suitable for children aged 15-18 years old
With the Fire on High features in the following genres: Featured Books for Young Adults, Recommendations, Star Books, Stories about Family and Friends, Stories in Verse, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational
With the Fire on High is available in Hardback
With the Fire on High was written by Elizabeth Acevedo and published by Hot Key Books
With the Fire on High has 391 pages
£8.99
