First published 2024
Rufus Jackson Jones lives in Birmingham, Alabama, which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. calls the most segregated city in America. His father works at the steel factory and his mother cooks at the mill. Both parents want to march for civil rights, but they know their bosses will fire them if they protest. In 1963, civil rights activists including Dr. King fill the city, pushing to prove that separate is not equal. The adults need more attention for their cause, but they risk losing their jobs. That's when the children step forward. Nobody can fire them from school. On a bright May morning, Rufus and his friends join thousands of other students for a peaceful protest in a local park. Police officers and firefighters meet them there. The officials turn powerful water hoses on the young protesters. In that moment, Rufus understands something important. They are the fire, and no amount of water will put them out.
Genres: civil-war, american-fiction, 20th-century, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Birmingham, Alabama
Period: 1963
176 pages · Paperback · Nancy Paulsen Books