Ablaze by Christopher Krovatin
Four out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
Aly is a middle child. She is dealing with middle child issues. She feels like she has to take care of her little brother and do what she can to calm and support her older sister. She lives by the middle child mantra of “I’m okay.” One morning, she makes breakfast muffins and burns her hand. Later that same day, she is at school, and a bully makes her angry in science class. Suddenly, their lab table sets on fire. Aly can only stare in wonder at the flames. She was angry, and then there was fire. Is there a connection there? Did she cause this?
Later, at home, she sits at her desk and gets frustrated with her math homework. Suddenly, her desk is in flames. Again, she was feeling some big emotions, and then there was fire. She also starts to imagine things on fire throughout the day. She is really starting to become obsessed with fire.
She soon starts to put the pieces together, and the research begins. What is this called? Pyrokinesis! She comes to terms with this fact quickly. I was expecting a lot more freaking out or a few more little fires before she just sort of goes with it. I let this go because I assumed it was due to this being a middle-grade book. I was also wondering what would happen next because we were not far into the book. There was a lot more to go!
I had a lot of questions. Did the burn from baking cause this? Was this going to happen at some point, regardless? Do her siblings have powers? Should she burn them and test that theory? (Okay, that last one is a little harsh.)
The book then took a hard turn, and crazy(well, crazier) things started happening. I ended up really liking the insane road this book took. There were things that I honestly did not expect! I just said in a previous post that I wanted to put stickers in my book journal when I guess the twists in a book. I would not have gotten a sticker with this book!
I saw that there is a second book. I’m excited to read the next one!
Literary Coffee 