Summary:
Siria's mother has passed away and she lives with her father in an apartment. Her father is a firefighter and she doesn't like it when he is called away to fight a fire. In fact, she sneaks out of the apartment and follows the sirens to make sure that all of the firefighters end up okay. As the calls begin to happen more and more often, Siria and her best friend Douglas need to find out if there is an arson in their midst.
My thoughts:
This is an okay book. I understood the motivations behind the characters based upon a general feeling about them, but Giff does not fully develop each one. This may be because she is writing for a middle grade audience, but she spent more time developing the plot than the characters in it. The mystery is easy to follow and it is clear who the culprit is early on in the novel. Nothing really shocked me, but it may be surprising to a younger reader. I would say that 4th-5th grade would be the target audience. The writing style and language fits that group. The biggest disappointment to me was the ending. I was not satisfied and felt like it was portraying an image that we shouldn't be teaching children.
Siria's mother has passed away and she lives with her father in an apartment. Her father is a firefighter and she doesn't like it when he is called away to fight a fire. In fact, she sneaks out of the apartment and follows the sirens to make sure that all of the firefighters end up okay. As the calls begin to happen more and more often, Siria and her best friend Douglas need to find out if there is an arson in their midst.
My thoughts:
This is an okay book. I understood the motivations behind the characters based upon a general feeling about them, but Giff does not fully develop each one. This may be because she is writing for a middle grade audience, but she spent more time developing the plot than the characters in it. The mystery is easy to follow and it is clear who the culprit is early on in the novel. Nothing really shocked me, but it may be surprising to a younger reader. I would say that 4th-5th grade would be the target audience. The writing style and language fits that group. The biggest disappointment to me was the ending. I was not satisfied and felt like it was portraying an image that we shouldn't be teaching children.
