Children of the Fire by Harriette Gillem Robinet

She reminded me of Veruca from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – whiny, spoiled rotten, and completely mindless of others. There is so little historical fiction about black children that these details being so wrong on the cover irks me and does a disservice to the book.īeyond the cover, the major problem I had with this novel was disliking Hallelujah. The cover also gives the impression that this book is for early elementary, when really it is aimed at a middle grade audience. When Hallelujah first meets Elizabeth, they don’t hold hands, and when she later meets her, Elizabeth does not have her doll. Different people see her in different ways.Įven the white girl is wrong. In the book it specifically states that her sister redid it into loose braids, not twists (and the cover looks more like ponytail poofs to me) A large theme of the book is that Hallelujah is able to blend in with different groups because she wears a simple dress, but custom-made shoes, is the daughter of a slave, yet can read and write.

Why did they include the rich white girl? Once I started reading, I also noticed that Hallelujah’s hair was wrong on the cover. We’ve visited Chicago, so I thought it might make a good family read-aloud. I hadn’t been reading much historical fiction so I impulsively bought this. In 1871 Chicago, Hallelujah wants nothing more than to watch one of the fires burning around the city, but has no idea how one of those fires will change her life. MG historical fiction, 134 pages including author’s note. Children of the Fire by Harriette Gillem Robinet.Īladdin Paperbacks, Simon and Schuster, 2001.