Fire Song

by Libby Hathorn

Edith's family has hit hard times - her father's gone, her two brothers have been sent to a home for boys, and it's just Edith, her mother and Blackie. When her mother tells her to burn the house down to collect the insurance, Edith has to make her own decisions and fight for what she believes in.Fire Song was commended in the Society of Women Writers of NSW bi-annual awards and was also highly commended in the Prime Minister's Literary Awards for 2010.

141 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2009

About the author

Libby Hathorn is an Australian writer who produces poetry, picture books, drama, novels, short stories, and nonfiction for children, young adults, and adults. Best known in the United States for her critically acclaimed novel Thunderwith, Hathorn has created works ranging from serious stories of troubled youth to lighthearted, fast-paced comedies. She writes of powerful female characters in her novels for junior readers, such as the protagonists in All about Anna and The Extraordinary Magics of Emma McDade; or of lonely, misunderstood teenagers in novels such as Feral Kid, Love Me Tender, and Valley under the Rock. As Maurice Saxby noted in St. James Guide to Children's Writers, "In her novels for teenagers especially, Hathorn exposes, with compassion, sensitivity, and poetry the universal and ongoing struggle of humanity to heal hurts, establish meaningful relationships, and to learn to accept one's self—and ultimately—those who have wronged us."