{"id":3601,"date":"2009-06-17T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=3601"},"modified":"2009-06-11T07:51:30","modified_gmt":"2009-06-11T13:51:30","slug":"fireflies-in-december-by-jennifer-erin-valent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/fireflies-in-december-by-jennifer-erin-valent\/","title":{"rendered":"Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/search.prairiecat.info\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/PALS-unicorn|2110770\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3604\" title=\"fireflies-in-december\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/fireflies-in-december.jpg?resize=185%2C280&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"fireflies-in-december\" width=\"185\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a>Do you love fireflies?\u00a0 I do &#8212; but I still call them lightning bugs, just as we all did back on the farm.\u00a0 There&#8217;s something magical about them as they brighten up your backyard on a warm summer evening.\u00a0 Recently, there have been reports that fireflies as a species are disappearing, or at least that their numbers are observably diminished.\u00a0 Still, I have never seen a firefly in December, and so I was drawn to this title.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/search.prairiecat.info\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/PALS-unicorn|2110770\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>Fireflies in December<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0a debut novel by Jennifer Erin Valent, we follow 13 year-old Jessilyn Lassiter during the summer of 1932 in southern Virginia.\u00a0 The opening line, &#8220;The summer I turned thirteen, I thought I killed a man&#8221; certainly catches your attention.\u00a0 We discover that Jessilyn&#8217;s family has taken in her best friend, Gemma, after Gemma&#8217;s parents die in\u00a0 a tragic fire. Unfortunately, this act is not met with the expected tacit approval.\u00a0 Gemma is black, and racism is rampant in this rural southern town.\u00a0 Prejudice escalates as the local Ku Klux Klan violently threatens Jessilyn and her family.\u00a0 In the end, Jessilyn begins to realize what it means to be a bright light in a dark world.<\/p>\n<p>As this book is a winner of the Christian Writer&#8217;s Guild,\u00a0 there are frequent references to faith and prayer, yet it doesn&#8217;t come off as preachy.\u00a0 Considering the age of the protaganist, this book could be recommended for young adults, especially if their parents prefer more wholesome fare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you love fireflies?\u00a0 I do &#8212; but I still call them lightning bugs, just as we all did back on the farm.\u00a0 There&#8217;s something magical about them as they brighten up your backyard on a warm summer evening.\u00a0 Recently, there have been reports that fireflies as a species are<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/fireflies-in-december-by-jennifer-erin-valent\/\">[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[661,155,664,665],"class_list":["post-3601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-discrimination","tag-family","tag-fireflies","tag-lightening-bugs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-W5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3601"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3611,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3601\/revisions\/3611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}