Sharon Draper is a great author and Fire from the Rock is no exception. Sylvia is torn between changing the world and living a normal teenage life in 1957 Arkansas.
On Fire
- Perfect historical fiction where a character interacts with real-life events and people. When Faubus does his TV broadcast, you can hear the hatred.
- Sylvia remains a teenager. She struggles with wanting/needing to be a hero, but never is she completely unrealistic. When considering integration she also considers what her sorta boyfriend wants and if a rival girl will horn in.
- Not everyone is one side of the integration spectrum or the other.
Ice Cold
- The only frustrations I truly had were directed towards characters and I think I was supposed to be frustrated with those characters. I wonder what it would be like to have Ms. Draper as my high school English teacher.
All in all a great book that students will love and Social Studies teachers will thank you for.
