What the Fireflies Knew

A tender coming of age story that unfolds over the course of a single summer. Our narrator is 10-year-old Kenyatta, whose family is in upheaval. After her father dies from an overdose and the family loses their Detroit home, her mother sends her and her older sister to live with their grandfather in Lansing, for reasons that, though unclear, are plenty scary to young KB. While Nia seems to slip easily into Lansing life, KB struggles to find her place, unsettled by the discovery her world and her family are more complex and frightening than she once believed them to be. A moving exploration of family, identity, and race that piercingly evokes the pains and pleasures of childhood summer days. Harris beautifully voiced her young book-loving protagonist and the many references to Anne of Green Gables were apt and touching. Content warnings apply. For fans of Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing and Gail Godwin’s Grief Cottage.