Alexis Nguyen / Edge columnist
Being a high school student is as hard it can be right now, especially with extracurriculars and part-time jobs, but what if you had to do all that while raising a child? With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo teaches some big life lessons while taking a journey with the main character’s self-reflection and allows readers to make connections within their own lives.
Emoni Santiago is a high school student who has a huge passion for cooking and wishes to be a chef someday. However, being a 17-year-old still in high school struggling to keep her grades up, throw in raising a two-year-old daughter into the mix, and her dream is starting to feel out of reach.
Schomburg Charter School adds a new elective that catches Emoni’s eye, Culinary Arts with Spanish Immersion. She takes the class, thinking she can put her talent and creativity to good use while working with like-minded people.
That turns out not to be the case since instructor Chef Ayden pushes her and her classmates to stick to strict guidelines for the class with next to zero opportunities to step outside of the box.
As a trip to Spain approaches, Emoni starts to resent the class, until Chef gives her a leadership role, letting her organize the fundraisers. With grown confidence, Emoni realizes her own potential, both as a chef and as a person, even if there are bumps in the road with co-parenting, and a new student that keeps hanging around her, leaving her with conflicting feelings.
With the Fire on High gives a glimpse into family situations many teens will not see, with an emphasis on teen parenthood. The way teen pregnancy and parenthood are portrayed seem very realistic and explains Emoni’s experiences of being a pregnant teen in high school, while breaking down the stereotypes that come with it.
While Emoni and her daughter Emma are the main focuses of the story, Acevedo also touches on losing a parent you have never met, and not being raised by the one still around, instead being raised by a grandparent.
A topic touched on that can relate to today’s teens is the ability to trust yourself and others. While Emoni goes through her senior year, it is obvious her trust must go a long way, since the fundraisers for her class trip is in her hands and leaving her kid in the hands of her ex-boyfriend, Tyrone, as they still try to navigate co-parenting. Trust is something many teens have difficulty practicing due to bad experiences with family or friends, however taking the risk of letting someone into your life is just a first step. The book expresses the difficulties or trusting, and how to slowly overcome them no matter how big the hurdles end up being.
Similarly, navigating teenagerhood can be a complicated journey for many, and With the Fire on High likes to outline the different struggles teens might have in their life, including heavy courses loads, balancing extracurriculars and jobs, university applications and adjusting to new lifestyles. Those are all very real issues that are seen in many students, allowing a sense of connection and relatability to the characters mentioned in the story.
Acevedo wrote the chapters so it would alternate between the story Emoni is currently going through, and parts of her backstory that bring more context to the present-day experiences. Chapters are shorter, and sure to keep readers hooked in the story the entire time with the changing topics.
Though many parts of the book are written with detail and well explained, there were topics that seemed lightly touched on then never returned to, like being able to learn in different forms and through experiences, which is a good point since many feel textbooks are not as effective learning tools. Conclusions were able to be drawn from reading future parts of the book but required more thinking to draw them.
Overall, Emoni’s story is a good representation of the difficulties of high school many students go through, combined with her experiences as a teen mother. Anyone who is looking for a read that goes deep into relatable topics and added humour every now and then, With the Fire on High is for you.
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