Judge A Book By Its Cover

Gee, Maurice. The Fire-Raiser. Penguin Books. New York, New York. 1992.

The Fire-Raiser is a book about a young boy named Alex, who lives in the South West with his Uncle Sam raising horses. Though he seems normal in the beginning of the book, you later find out he has some mysterious powers.

Alex enjoys being with the horses and hanging out with his friends. Everyone gets along with him unless he gets mad. When he's mad it seems as if he is going to burn things to pieces with his eyes. Nobody understands why or how he gets so mad.

One day, Alex met a new partner on his Uncle's Ranch. His uncle introduced the man as Ted Shield. Ted was from the deep South and spoke with a deep Southern accents. Right away Alex didn't like him because he had a snipey attitude towards his uncle Sam. Ted always seemed to be raising his voice towards Alex's uncle and stomping around the ranch. Even though Alex didn't enjoy Ted's company he always wanted him around because he would bring his daughter Mary.

Mary and Alex spent a lot of time together running with the horses. One day Mary showed up at the ranch with a big black eye. Alex was deeply concerned. Mary started crying and told Alex about her dad hitting her. Alex felt an overpowering fire building up inside of him.

Alex wanted to help Mary so she wouldn't get hurt by her father anymore, but didn't know what he could do. Alex couldn't confront Ted because he was his elder. One night, Mary came over with another bruise and Alex just couldn't take it. He went to the barn and told Mary his secret. He closed his eyes as tight as he could and started twitching his arms from side to side. Then with a fierce awaking of his eyes Alex started to cause a fire inside the barn. Mary stared at the barn as it lit up with flames confused and scared. Mary grabber Alex shoulder and yelled at him to stop.

After that night Mary was afraid of what Alex might do to her father with his powers. She was afraid Alex might come after her.

Maurice Gee really runs wild with her imagination in this story. She try to make reader's enjoy every vivid detail. If you enjoy make believe science fiction, then this book is the book for you.

The Fire-Raiser is a strange and confusing book. Maurice Gee, the author, uses a lot of Sci-fi drama to confuse readers. It is a strange book because the author doesn't explain how the characters gets control of their powers.

2 out of 5 stars.

Contributed by C. Brown
Feb. 16th 2007