Emoni’s love for Babygirl and the joys of motherhood are keenly felt and are such warm and comforting anchors throughout the story. Emoni, at 17-years old, is a young mother to three-year old Emma, or ‘Babygirl’. With the Fire on High is, at its heart, a story about parenthood. However, if you needed a little motivation to pick up this book, I am here to give you five reasons to read this stunning book about food, life, and dreams.

The praises for this book have been sung low and high, and I can confidently say that its praises are deserved. Told with Acevedo’s heart-warming and soulful prose, With the Fire on High follows Emoni, an Afro-Puerto-Rican teen and mother, and how she wrestles with being a mum, being a teen, daring to follow her dreams to become a culinary chef, and the weight of responsibilities to be and do all of the above at once. When the world tells you that Elizabeth Acevedo, author of the stunning and revolutionary novel-in-verse The Poet X, has written another book called With the Fire on High and that it is as incredible as her first book? You read it – because not only is With the Fire on High indisputably fantastic but, if you read it, you will definitely thank yourself for it later. Yet despite the rules she thinks she has to play by, once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness.Įven though she dreams of working as a chef after she graduates, Emoni knows that it’s not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago’s life has been about making the tough decisions-doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela.

Elizabeth acevedo with the fire on high