For two years, I’ve read nothing but children’s books. I often find gems I wish to share with the world. So, today starts a new feature on this blog. Each month, I’ll review a favorite read.
The Fire-us Trilogy by Jennifer Armstrong and Nancy Butcher is a YA post-apocalyptic tale set in Florida. It follows seven children who formed a family four years after a plague killed all the adults. Mommy, Hunter, Teacher, Action Figure, Teddy Bear, Baby, and Doll live in a mildewed subdivision house with no electricity. Hunter, the oldest boy, scavenges for supplies in the daytime. He’s cleaned out the food in nearby houses and there’s little stock left in local stores. As he travels, he removes skeletons so the rest of his family won’t have to see them. Fourteen-year-old, Mommy, does her best to nurture the family and Teacher guides them with the help of The Book, an album she’s pieced together with scraps from magazines, newspapers, and phone books.
The children are facing starvation when a new boy knocks on their door. Angerman talks through a wood frame with the voice of a TV anchor. He makes the older kids nervous while the little ones giggle and flock to his side. Angerman convinces the children to set out for Washington in search of the President who will surely have answers to their questions about the plague…Fire-us. Their journey challenges their courage, resilience, and ingenuity.
Armstrong and Butcher lured me into their imaginative world with alligators lurking in overgrown lawns and an evolving society based on children’s fractured post-traumatic memories. The story is told from multiple point of views which can be confusing, but in this case works. Tension builds from the first book to the second, leading to a surprise ending in the third.
