What the fireflies knew.
After almost-eleven-year-old Kenyatta Bernice's (KB) father dies of an overdose and the debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit, she and her teenage sister, Nia, are sent by their overwhelmed mother to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing. Over the course of a single, sweltering summer, KB attempts to get her bearings in a world that has turned upside down-a father who is labeled a fiend; a mother whose smile no longer reaches her eyes; a sister, once her best friend, who has crossed the threshold of adolescence and suddenly wants nothing to do with her; a grandfather who is grumpy and silent; the white kids across the street who are friendly, but only sometimes. And all of them are keeping secrets. Pinballing between resentment, abandonment, and loneliness, KB is forced to carve out a different identity for herself and find her own voice. As she examines the jagged pieces of her recently shattered world, she learns that while some truths cut deep, a new life-and a new KB-can be built from the shards. Capturing all the vulnerability, perceptiveness, and inquisitiveness of a young Black girl on the cusp of puberty, Harris's prose perfectly inhabits that hazy space between childhood and adolescence, where everything that was once familiar develops a veneer of strangeness when seen through newer, older eyes. Through KB's disillusionment and subsequent discovery of her own power, What the Fireflies Knew poignantly reveals that heartbreaking but necessary component of growing up-the realization that loved ones can be flawed, sometimes significantly so, and that the perfect family we all dream of looks different up close.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780593556580
- Physical Description: 370 pages (large print) ; 24 cm
- Edition: Large print edition.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Families > Fiction. Death > Fiction. Secrecy > Fiction. |
Genre: | Large print books. Bildungsromans. Fiction. Literary fiction. |
Available copies
- 2 of 2 copies available at Missouri Evergreen. (Show)
- 2 of 2 copies available at Little Dixie Regional.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 2 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Little Dixie - Main Library - Moberly | LP F HARRIS (Text) | 2004683228 | Large Print | Available | - |
Little Dixie - Paris | LP F HARRIS (Text)
In Memory Of...: Helen Johnson
|
2004683961 | LARGE PRINT | Available | - |
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What the Fireflies Knew : A Novel
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Summary
What the Fireflies Knew : A Novel
An NAACP Image Award Nominee Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize A Marie Claire Book Club pick Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by * Marie Claire* *Teen Vogue* * Buzzfeed* * Essence * * Ms. Magazine * *NBCNews.com* * Bookriot * * Bookbub* and more! "Harris rewrites the coming-of-age story with Black girlhood at the center." -- New York Times Book Review In the vein of Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones and Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees , a coming-of-age novel told by almost-eleven-year-old Kenyatta Bernice (KB), as she and her sister try to make sense of their new life with their estranged grandfather in the wake of their father's death and their mother's disappearance An ode to Black girlhood and adolescence as seen through KB's eyes, What the Fireflies Knew follows KB after her father dies of an overdose and the debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit. Soon thereafter, KB and her teenage sister, Nia, are sent by their overwhelmed mother to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing, Michigan. Over the course of a single sweltering summer, KB attempts to navigate a world that has turned upside down. Her father has been labeled a fiend. Her mother's smile no longer reaches her eyes. Her sister, once her best friend, now feels like a stranger. Her grandfather is grumpy and silent. The white kids who live across the street are friendly, but only sometimes. And they're all keeping secrets. As KB vacillates between resentment, abandonment, and loneliness, she is forced to carve out a different identity for herself and find her own voice. A dazzling and moving novel about family, identity, and race, What the Fireflies Knew poignantly reveals that heartbreaking but necessary component of growing up--the realization that loved ones can be flawed and that the perfect family we all dream of looks different up close.