Angell 1

Olivia Angell

Mrs. Cramer

College comp pd 8

December 18, 2020

Forced to Grow Up Fast

What are your favorite types of books to read? If they are realistic books, then With the

Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo is the book for you. The reader learns of a compelling story

about a teen mother just trying to figure out what she truly wants in life for her and her child while

also continuing her passion for cooking. The reader will feel sympathy toward the characters

because of their real-world experiences, such as being a teen parent and how some of the main

characters don’t have a parent in the home and live with other family members as their guardians.

Beginning with the main points of the book, With the Fire on High, is that the main

character Emoni is a senior in high school and a teen mom. “When Emoni was a freshman in high

school she met a boy named Tyrone who was older and from a different school. Emoni became

pregnant her freshman year” (Acevedo). By her senior year, when the book takes place, Emoni’s

daughter is about three and Emoni has learned so much about herself and her daughter. Emoni’s

situation makes her a realistic character to the reader because there could be a lot of readers out

there that are in her situation or know someone who is in the same situation. Most books that

involve teen moms are about just the mom and her hard decision on whether or not to keep her

unborn child, whereas in this book the baby is here and Emoni is trying to make sure she is doing

what’s best for her and mostly for her child. On page twenty-one paragraph one Emoni states “I

was that girl your moms warns you about being friends with. And warns you about becoming.”
 Angell 2

(page 21 paragraph 1) When Emoni states this it makes the reader feel upset for her because as the

reader gets to know her in the book the reader realize that she is not what people may think of her,

and the reader will learn that she is a caring person and mother who is trying her best to make a

good impression on people even if they already have their own prior opinions due to her child. The

reader will start to feel sympathy for Emoni because of the hardships she has been through even

though she makes the best out of all of her situations. This makes the reader want to almost praise

her because of how hard she tries to give herself and her daughter a life that they both deserve.

Another reason why the characters in this book are realistic is because two of the main

characters live with relatives other than their parents. “The main character Emoni lives with her

abuela and daughter, Emoni’s mother died in childbirth and her father could not bear to stay in the

city of Philadelphia and moved back to Puerto Rico” (Acevedo). Although he calls and will come

for a little while a few times a year it still has an effect on Emoni and how she parents her daughter.

At the end of the book, he does come back for longer than normal to help while Emoni starts

college, but she does not know for how long and she does worry that he will just leave out of

nowhere like he has done before. Malachi is another main character in the book, he is a new student

at Emoni’s school. They are in the same cooking class and start to build a friendship over the

course of the school year. “Malachi’s younger brother was shot and killed in Newark, after this

happened his mother sent him to live with his aunt in Philadelphia to be in a safer environment

and to get away from all of the violence” (Acevedo). People are able to relate to Emoni and

Malachi’s situation because these situations can be real to people because they could be going

through them or know someone who is. The reader will begin to feel sympathy for Emoni because

money is tight and with her abuela on disability and not being able to have a job, and Emoni being

in school and having a young daughter it can make the reader sympathetic to what is going on in
 Angell 3

her life. It is also easy for the reader to feel sympathy to Malachi as well because of what happened

to his brother and why he has to live with his aunt. He had start at a new school in his senior year

and is not even able to live with his mother which could be discouraging but he knows that it is

for the best and why it was better for him to live with his aunt. The reader will feel sympathetic

toward him though.

In conclusion, With the Fire on High is good for people that want to be able to relate and

feel emotions toward the characters they are reading about. In this book the reader feels as though

they are reading a book with characters that are very relatable with realistic situations. This helps

the reader feel sympathy toward the characters because of their real-world experiences, such as

being a teen parent and how some of the main characters do not have a parent in the home and live

with other family members as their guardians. These aspects also leave the reader wanting more

and wanting to know what happens to their favorite characters at the end of the book.
 Angell 4

Work cited

Acevedo, Elizabeth. With the Fire on High. New York; HarperCollins, 2019. Print