Book Review: Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent

Title: Fireflies in December
Author: Jennifer Erin Valent
Publisher: 2008
Copyright: Tyndale House Publishers
Pages: 344
ISBN: 978-1-4143-2432-6
Genre: Historical Fiction

A strong-minded thirteen-year-old knows her summer won't be good when the class bully arrives at her birthday party. Jessilyn Lassiter grumbles about disgusting pigs' feet as a birthday gift, but the pigs' feet are the least of her troubles. When the kids visit the local swimming hole, minus any adult supervision, the bully holds her under the water. In her attempts to escape, she hits her head and nearly drowns.

Unfortunately, Jessilyn's summer only gets worse after her birthday party. Jessilyn lives in the South during the 1930s. Tensions sometimes run high as hate and racism take their toll on her community.

Fireflies in December is Valent's debut novel. Like one of my other recent reviews (Vanish by Tom Pawlik), Fireflies in December won the Operation First Novel contest of the Christian Writers Guild. The Guild encourages high standards in writing, and as a result, the contest winners often far outstrip, in terms of quality, other debut novels that hit the market.

Valent begins with a stellar introduction: "The summer I turned thirteen, I thought I'd killed a man" (1). I was going to say, "I think this should have been the back-cover copy." It grabs my interest more than any summary would. But then I read the back-cover copy just now, and I see that this hook was indeed used as the first sentence of the copy. Clever marketers.

Anyway, Valent has carried off a compelling voice in her character Jessilyn. This thirteen-year-old displays a humorous amount of spunk, a gratifying amount of wisdom, and a refreshing tendency to see beyond the racism that plagues people around her.

And despite the heaviness of the circumstances, Fireflies in December contains a few funny passages, too. My favorite was a conversation between Jessilyn and another girl:

"'There's only so much a girl can take, and I can't take much more of this heat.' [Jessilyn begins.]

'You ain't got no choice. You ain't God.'

'I don't know why God likes to make us so hot.'

'Maybe it's to remind us why we don't want to go to hell.'

I laughed at her as much as I could manage on that sleepy day. 'You do beat all, Gemma.'

'I ain't kiddin'! There ain't nothin' wrong with rememberin' what's bad about hell.'

'You'd best not let Momma hear you talkin' about hell. I ain't allowed to say that word.'

'You just did'" (88-89).

The conversation then continues on a more serious note. And this is the way Valent carries out her story; she meshes the humorous and serious together.

In addition, Fireflies in December ends cleanly. Valent wraps up the story with a real conclusion that ties off the main story threads. For me, a poor ending can absolutely ruin an otherwise good book. But despite the fact that Valent continues the story in another volume, she doesn't make the mistake of leaving her readers with a non-conclusion.

Fireflies in December is a solid novel. I think its historical setting could offer educational value to homeschoolers. And I expect that, although appearing as an adult book, Fireflies in December would also appeal to many teen girls.