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Synopsis
A 14-year-old deals with the aftermath of a school fire that kills his classmates and any sense of a normal life in Susan Shaw's One of the Survivors.
Children's Literature
Susan Shaw writes novels of sophisticated subtleties and her new one is no exception. Two freshmen high school students survive a school fire that takes the lives of twenty-five classmates and one of their teachers. Fire alarms had been ringing all day, followed by announcements that the alarm is not a fire but an error in the system. Protagonist Joey has some personal history with fire alarms and deadly fires so when he gets up and walks out, his neighborhood friend Maureen simply walks out with him. But is their story of survival that simple? Local families and students are struggling with the death of so many young people and they believe that something else must have happened that day. Some of them react violently against Joey and Maureen. The true story comes out in small bits and pieces through Joey's journaling and is finally brought together at the public memorial service for those who died. This is a story of survival in all of its incarnations—physical, psychological, and emotional. Survivor's guilt and a desire to find fault come crashing together until one high school student reaches out to the two ostracized freshmen, representing the first hope that even in the face of unbearable tragedy, moving forward may be possible. Middle school readers will be intrigued by the story's suspense but may need help sorting through the implications of the story's events. Reviewer: Janis Flint-Ferguson