The Time of the Fireflies by Kimberley Griffiths Little (review)

A move back to the family’s Louisiana hometown was supposed to bring some peace to Larissa’s family, still grieving the recent loss of two babies. All it really does, though, is cause more pain when an encounter with bullies and an accident in the bayou leaves Larissa’s face scarred and her heart bitter. A year later, Larissa is still hiding out in her parents’ antique shop when an old—disconnected—phone rings, and a mysterious voice on the other end tells her to follow the fireflies. On a walk that evening, she spots a cluster of fireflies near the site of her accident and the insects swarm her and transport her nearly a century back in time to a sugar-cane plantation that apparently once belonged to her mother’s family. Larissa discovers the possible source for generations of tragedies in her family, but how she’ll put a stop to it, she’s not sure. The story here is both sweet and atmospheric, with the intriguing mystery behind Larissa’s family history capably balanced with the more quotidian, accessible elements of her dealing with the arrival of a new sibling and coping with bullying. Larissa’s narration is particularly effective at capturing her overreactions without making her seem melodramatic, and her concern over her appearance and how it relates to her budding identity will be familiar to preteen readers. Moss-covered cypresses and gator-filled swamps make for a beautifully dangerous Southern setting, but the book is uncomfortably evasive on the issue of race, never directly acknowledging the racial divide between the wealthy plantation owners and their servants. This still makes for an absorbing read, however, and it would make an appealing readalike to Thompson’s The Girl from Felony Bay (BCCB 6/13).