It’s Anny’s first day of middle school and, after years of being home-schooled, her first day of public school ever. In art, Larissa asks what kind of ESP is her favorite: telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, or telekinesis? Tracy asks how she identifies: gay, straight, bi, asexual, pan, trans, or confused? And thus kicks off a school year for Anny in which she’ll navigate a path between childhood and adolescence, imagination and identity. In a year of turmoil and transition, with a new awareness of loss after the death of a friend, Anny struggles to find meaning in tragedy, to come to terms with her questions about her sexuality, and to figure out how to negotiate her own ever-shifting new friendships. And when her oldest friend’s life is in danger, she must summon up her wits, imagination, and the ghosts that haunt her to save them both.
Praise for Fires Burning Underground
“Yes, there are fires, but there are also ‘codes’ in McCabe’s compelling middle-grade story about Anny and the many codes she tries to decipher as she navigates fitting into a new school, old and new friendships, questions about sexuality and identity, and those that inform her parents’ lives.”
—Susan Campbell Bartoletti, author of The Boy Who Dared and Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow
“Anny begins middle school with more than the usual first-day anxieties: She’s in public school for the first time, so the complexities of making friends seem overwhelming. And a boy in her class has just died tragically. Anny is consumed by worries both serious (how do I know if I’m gay? why didn’t God protect Robert?) and trivial (what if I forget my locker combination?). As Anny navigates an increasingly fraught friendship drama and deals with hostility from her strict religious parents, the author does a wonderful job of drawing us in, making us sympathize with Anny. We see Anny slowly growing in courage and agency, and we root for her. A sensitively drawn and beautifully written portrait of a girl coming into her own.”
—Kathleen Wilford, author of Cabby Potts, Duchess of Dirt
“In Fires Burning Underground, Nancy McCabe deftly taps into the adolescent mind and voice of her character, Anny, with all her angst, hopes, fears, questions, and constant ups and downs. Young readers will readily identify with Anny’s roller coaster of emotions.”
—Edith M. Hemingway, author of That Smudge of Smoke and Road to Tater Hill
