With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Angie Thomas’s Concrete Rose is a prequel to her hit 2017 novel, The Hate U Give it follows The Hate U Give’s protagonist, Starr’s, 17-year-old dad as he balances new (and impending) parenthood and finishing up high school. With the Fire On High is one of several contemporary novels that explores unplanned pregnancies, particularly among teens. Indeed, Puerto Rican people who live in Philadelphia tend to be more likely to be solidly middle-class than Puerto Ricans living elsewhere in the U.S.Īcevedo cites the Dominican author Junot Díaz ( The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) as a major influence on her writing, as well as Jacqueline Woodson’s 2014 verse novel Brown Girl Dreaming. As Emoni notes, while Black, Hispanic, and Latinx neighborhoods in Philadelphia tend to have historically higher crime rates, communities are robust, close-knit, and thriving. With the Fire On High also highlights the racial and ethnic makeup of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has the second-largest Puerto Rican population of any U.S. Since the 1990s, teen pregnancy rates have been decreasing in the U.S., something the CDC and other research organizations attribute to more teens choosing to delay sexual activity, increasing access to birth control, and evidence-based sex ed programs (in states and counties that don’t implement evidenced-based sex education programs, teen pregnancy rates tend to be higher). While her racial identity (as Black and Latinx) and her family’s low income are factors that the CDC has found can contribute to higher rates of teen pregnancy, the CDC has also found that only about 50 percent of girls who have a child while in high school go on to graduate, compared to 90 percent of their peers who don’t become parents.

It’s worth keeping in mind that Emoni, as a teen mother who also graduates high school and is bound for college in the fall, is the exception among American teen mothers rather than the norm. Emoni’s “When the World Tries to Break You, Break Beer Bread with Those You Love” Recipe

Emoni’s “No Use Crying Over Spilled Strawberry Milk” Recipe Emoni’s “When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Verbena Tembleque” Recipe

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo