August 13, 2023

With The Fire On High

Two seperate photes. The first is a head shot of the author, elizabeth Acevedo surrounded my a halo of dominican curls. The other shows Spanish and English versions of the novel "With The Fire On High" against a wood background.

Elizabeth Acevedo makes me fall in love with her writing again in this novel, With The Fire On High. With The Fire On High is a coming-of-age story about a third-culture teen of African-American and Puerto Rian descent learning to juggle the responsibilities of teen motherhood while chasing her culinary dreams in Philadelphia.

In Spanish, the title is El Ingrediente Secreto de Emoni Santiago.

Before I get into the content, let’s first marvel over that cover art! If you want to judge a book by its cover, With Fire On High is the book to do it. This story is beautiful both inside and out.

Summary

Emoni Santiago is a talented 17-year-old, intuitive chef who must learn rigid conformity in her culinary class to elevate her cooking. She desires to tour Spain with her class and become a professional chef, but she has a few barriers to opportunities. Her mother passed away during labor (a high statistical probability for African-American women). Although her father is present in her life, he chooses to live in Puerto Rico, leaving his mother to raise Emoni. As such ‘Buela is now raising her third generation of babies (Emoni’s dad, Emoni, and Emoni’s two-year-old daughter Emma).

Emoni is busy going to school, working, being a mother, maintaining friendships, cooking, applying to college, and having a chance at love. She has to sort through motherhood sacrifices and prioritize not only her desires but what will be best for her little girl. The adults in her life support her, but she has until graduation to figure out the best path for her life. She has to act quickly because the fire is on high in her life.

Why I Loved With The Fire On High

I don’t know how she does it, but Elizabeth Acevedo writes compelling characters that you want to root for. The way the author makes the reader invested in the success of the protagonist is a skill writers envy. In this case, you have a perceptive, determined, hardworking teen who has experienced adversity. But you can’t help but hope everything works out for her. You keep reading because you’re genuinely excited to learn which of the bright paths toward her future she might choose.
The way the author addresses multicultural topics through dialogue provides an education that might lessen the strain of multicultural kids.
I grew up during a time when adults pushed the narrative that unmarried pregnancy was the worst thing that could ever happen in hopes of scaring teens, girls in particular, into abstinence. This book takes a more balanced approach. While getting pregnant during your freshman year of high school isn’t ideal, motherhood is still a challenging but rewarding charge. This book explores the hardships with equal clarity as the tenderness and joys.
And then there’s the food. Food, for me, is always a fun topic to read. In the novel, food is the central theme surrounding togetherness, community, connection, history, and healing. Just like in her novel, Clap When You Land, the author sure knows how to write about food in a way that stirs the senses!
Emoni’s story is thought-provoking and relatable to everyone who has gone through that major life transition into adulthood. With The Fire On High tops my praise list. I’ll recommend its lessons and positive messaging to everyone over the age of 17.

That said, this book also mentions themes and topics of:

Descriptive depiction of teenage sex (page 44), mentions immature sexual innuendo amongst teenage conversations, Teen Parenthood, LGBTQ+ issues, Death, Caregiving, Cultural Identity, Community, and mentorship.

I always want to point out a few things that might raise a yellow flag for parents. You can’t always blindly trust that YA fiction is really suitable for young readers (age 13-18).