With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo follows the journey of Emoni Santiago, a teen mother in her final year of high school. Set in Philadelphia, Emoni has a passion for culinary arts and struggles to incorporate that into her current and future life. In the novel, she juggles parenthood, friendship, her future, and love.

The character that stood out the most to me was Abuela, Emoni’s grandmother. In the story, her Abuela plays a significant role in ensuring that Emoni and Emoni’s daughter are well cared for. Towards the end of the story, we see that she needs more time to herself because of the overwhelming stress. Her character proves to be a life lesson because of her acknowledgment that she too needs a break from life from time to time. My favorite part of the book was when Emoni went to Spain with her culinary arts class. She worked hard to ensure the trip and when she was on the trip, she had first-hand experience of working in a restaurant. I like this part in the book because it shows that all her hard work paid off in the end. The book had hard topics and stressful situations but overall, it was a lighthearted read. It was able to capture how your life changes when not only having a child but also having one as a teenager. At the end of the novel, it ended on a cliffhanger, but in a way that was still fulfilling. For me, there were no negatives to the story, it was easily understandable and a good read.

Overall, this book is a good suggestion if you are looking for an easy read. Since there are harder topics like teen pregnancy, swear words, and drinking occurrent in the story, I would recommend that kids in high school and up read the book.