In this debut coming-of-age novel, Kai Harris breathes life into a wonderful character named Kenyatta, or KB as she prefers; one of my favorite characters in a while. Detroit native KB is ten-going-on-eleven when she and her fourteen-year-old sister Nia are sent to their estranged grandfather's house in Lansing for the summer after her father dies of a drug overdose, the girls and their mother lose their house, and their mother has something of a breakdown. The story is narrated by KB in an authentic and engaging voice. Probably the most credible child voice I have ever read. Refreshing, too, to read a story that does not focus on racism, but it is never far from the surface: the divorced White woman who lives across from the grandfather will not allow her children to play with KB because she is Black, even though they enjoy each other's company. The main characters, from KB to Nia to their mother and their grandfather, are complex and unique as they deal with their mistakes, losses, and learning to forgive and love again. The overarching themes are the importance of family and chosing to put aside old grievances rather than dwelling on them and allowing them to fester and poison us. I was engaged in this book from the first page and I did not want the story to end. Literary fiction; Black contemporary fiction. ( )

Audiobook version.

This has the potential to be a great book. It felt like narrator was recording her very first read of the material.

The phrasing was sometimes awkward, the cadence was off, and the whole experience felt stiff. It was bad enough that I couldn't finish it.

I liked the story and the writing enough that I'll get a hard copy. ( )

I’m starting to think literary novels just aren’t for me. Kenyatta “KB’s” narrative voice was good though, at times, she felt younger than eleven. The distance between her older sister and how it affected her was well done. It can be tough for younger siblings to reconcile when their older teenaged siblings want nothing to do with them/considerable space, then add in trauma and you have an emotional explosion.

The tone of this book was very casual and slice-of-lifeish. KB’s momma is sad all the time, Granddaddy is mostly quiet but comes around eventually, and Nia is boy-crazy and irresponsible. At some point, KB realizes her momma’s sadness is here to stay and that her dad was drug-addicted. But that’s mainly in the background of KB’s musings. Her foremost concerns are making Nia her friend again and trying to befriend two white kids in the neighborhood whose mom doesn’t want them around KB’s “kind.”

For the longest, I wondered why this was labeled adult fiction until two climatic points. KB has a freakout once she discovers what Nia does while sneaking out. The event is terribly traumatic for her. The images she saw and her sister being involved mentally break little KB. The other plot point is a very unsettling sexual assault by a minor done to another minor.

The ’90s setting also contributed absolutely nothing besides being after the brunt of the crack epidemic. On a good note, I enjoyed the relationship between KB and her grandfather once he defrosted.

While this wasn’t for me, I wasn’t bored, but I was always waiting for what was next. This all felt a little like journal entries if that makes sense. Any element that was introduced was concluded with a nice bow at the end. ( )

I have just finished What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris and loved it! I had no prior idea of the book; I'd gotten or seen a recommendation & got the book. It's wonderful, powerful, moving, insightful .... extraordinary. ( )

I think I expected to like this book more than I actually did. I knew it was about a young black girl who loves to read and one of her favourite books is Anne of Green Gables. When I was about the age of the central character I actually did a speech about L. M. Montgomery for 4-H. That's how much I loved the Anne books (and all of her other books). So I expected this to be a delight. Somehow it left me a little disappointed.

KB has an older sister, Nia, a mother and a father and they live in a house in Detroit. It's not a particularly great part of Detroit but it's home. Then her father dies from an overdose and the house is lost. KB, Nia, and their mother are all struggling with the grief plus the homelessness. For a while they lived out of their car and then in a motel room. When summer come KB and Nia go to live with their grandfather in Lansing. They barely know their grandfather and they are devastated that their mother is leaving them with him. KB figures that she and Nia will just stick together until their mother comes back but Nia is acting strange. It could just be that Nia wants to do different things than KB but she's also very aloof. There are two white kids about KB's age living across the street but her grandfather tells KB not to play with them. However, KB is so lonely she approaches them when they are outside their house and they get along quite well. However, when their mother finds out they've been playing together she shows her racism and bans her kids from playing with KB. Poor KB. Every opportunity she has to make new friends ends badly and then she has a bad fight with Nia. She does start to engage with her grandfather more and learns about why her mother had little to do with him until she turned to him this summer. KB decides to get her mother and grandfather reconciled and she decides she will need help from Nia to accomplish that. They envision all of them living together in Lansing. That's not the happy ending that this book gives us.

I just couldn't quite believe in KB. On the one hand she loves reading but on the other hand she uses "ain't" in all her speech which doesn't seem to me what an intelligent bookworm would do. She also seems remarkably naive for a girl growing up in a tough neighbourhood in Detroit. That undermined my enjoyment of this coming of age story. ( )