Burning Up

by Caroline B. Cooney Narrated by Christina Moore

Overview

Fifteen-year-old Macey Clare decides to research the history of a burned-out neighborhood barn for a school project. But no one in her beautiful, wealthy town wants to answer her questions about the fire of 1959. When Macey discovers that somebody was actually living in the barn when it burned, she vows to find the truth. Macey and her friends are nearly killed when an arsonist attacks the black church where they have volunteered. Although it's only a town away, the teens she meets at Good Shepherd have lives she can barely imagine. And like the fire of '59, no one in her town seems to care. Burning Up teaches young adults about the evil of indifference and the power of accepting responsibility. Author of the award-winning Face on the Milk Carton series, Caroline B. Cooney has created a riveting novel, from which narrator Christina Moore evokes the full dramatic power.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Macey senses a connection between a 1959 barn fire and an arsonist's attack on an inner-city church. PW wrote, "Even though Macey's introduction to prejudice and her unshakable nobility are slightly overdrawn, she remains a sympathetic figure." Ages 12-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

(Gr 7-10) -- Researching a local-history project for school, 15-year-old Macey happens upon a 1959 arson case that targeted the first African-American teacher in her privileged Connecticut town. Shocked to learn that her community could have been so racially biased as to tolerate this attempted murder, she is further outraged when she realizes the extent to which her community remains segregated. Using library and Internet resources as well as interviews, Macey and her boyfriend, Austin, gradually uncover enough facts to confront the prejudice they perceive in others and begin to assess their own level of responsibility. This story line is strong. Clever phrasing and likable central characters enliven the story. The emotions are palpable, and the topic is important. Unfortunately, other details detract. Coincidentally, Macey, Austin, and friends are nearly killed by an arsonist while performing a community-service project. Coincidentally, the black girl Macey worked with is soon killed in an altercation with a gang. Macey and Austin live as neighbors with their respective grandparents and their romance is sweetly portrayed. However, it seems unrealistic that Austin would rather go back to Chicago to hope for his parents' reconciliation than finish the last three weeks of school with Macey. Extensive foreshadowing seems melodramatic and overwrought. It rankles that the word "fire" or related terms are present on more than one-third of the pages. Macey's investigation into racism is heartfelt and her personal commitment to action is laudable, but the book is not entirely convincing. -- Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Jr. High School, Iowa City, IA

Cathy Young

If you've read The Face on the Milk Carton, Whatever Happened to Janie?, or any of this bestselling author's other novels, you know that Caroline B. Cooney is a master at unraveling suspenseful yarns. As they unwind, these stories tug on our curiosities and pull us deeper and deeper into her characters' lives and circumstances. Cooney's newest, Burning Up, will grab your attention with equal force.

When 15-year-old Macey Clare decides to research a barn fire that happened decades ago in her small Connecticut town for a school project, she's met with a confusing, stony silence everywhere she turns. Even her parents and grandparents refuse to answer her questions about what happened that night 38 years ago. Why? Everyone, including her teacher and the librarian at school, encourages her to study another subject. Macey thinks this is very strange, but she grudgingly cooperates and begins researching the boring topic of the impact of railroads on her town's history.

Then, one Saturday, when she and her pals are helping to paint the classrooms of an inner-city church, Macey barely escapes a raging fire. As the fire roars around them and the teens run for safety, Macey's long hair catches fire. It is Austin who smothers it with his own shirt. If it weren't for her friend's fast reflexes, Macey might have burned to death. Now, with smoke lingering in her nose and lungs -- even days after the fire -- and her head covered only in short wisps of her remaining hair, Macey's curiosity about the barn fire 38 years ago returns.

Could there be a connection between the barn fire and the church fire in which Macey and her friends almost lost their lives?

Now Cooney's magic begins to blaze. Readers will be riveted in their seats, unable to put this novel down until its last page is devoured.

Macey enlists Austin's help, and together the two teens bravely piece together some answers about what happened the night the barn burned down. They discover that a man once lived in the barn's apartment, and that the man was also the very first black man hired to teach in the town's middle school. Macey's mother remembers the man well. In fact, he was her very favorite science teacher. Forty years later, Macey's mother can still remember specific lectures Mr. Sibley gave. If that's true, Macey wonders, why can't her mother remember the fire? And why do her grandparents, such jovial people normally, get so tight-lipped and evasive when she asks questions about that night? Does Macey have the courage to crack the town's stony silence and find out the truth -- even if it's an ugly truth about her own family?

Burning Up is a fast-paced, literary firestorm that will sweep into the hearts of teen readers and help them wrestle with difficult issues of race, prejudice, family secrets, and the profound destructiveness of hate, especially the quiet and polite kind of hate that gets institutionalized in some exclusive towns across America. This also is a story of courage -- courage that not only allows people to survive raging fires but also inspires them to stand up for what's right. Cooney's characters are complicated and drawn with depth and even some unexpected humor. Warming this story up even more is the crush that begins to smolder between Macey and Austin and the friendship that unfolds from the crush's energy. Cooney has done it again. Burning Up sizzles.

--Barnesandnoble.com

Kirkus Reviews

From Cooney (The Voice on the Radio, 1996, etc.), a hard look at the tacit, unacknowledged racism that lurks beneath the surface of an affluent, supposedly enlightened community. Macey loves her Connecticut town. Her grandparents, Papa and Nana, provide a home for her during the frequent absences of her upwardly mobile parents; school and friends are great; and handsome Austin is taking a flattering interest in her. The only thing that worries her is the reaction she gets from everyone she asks about a mysterious fire in 1959 that destroyed a local barn, and a renovated apartment within it, where a black teacher lived. When Macey is assigned community service painting an inner-city church, she is paired with a parishioner, Venita, and they bond, immediately. That day, however, an arsonist sets fire to the church, and they and others are almost killed. Macey is shocked at the viciousness of the act, and more curious about the long-ago fire near her home. When Venita is killed trying to protect a little girl from a gang, Macey grieves and begins to question seriously the chasm of hate between blacks and whites. The truth about the 1959 fire, which was deliberately set and witnessed by those closest to her, nearly destroys her. This thought-provoking story has a powerful message, effortlessly woven into the ordinary trappings of a teenager's life. Cooney allows for no cozy ending; as Macey faces what racism has done to her community, readers will question what it has done to theirs. (Fiction. 12-14) .

From the Publisher

"A powerful message, effortlessly woven into the ordinary trappings of a teenager's life." — Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171054137
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	01/24/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

How strange Macey felt around Austin: this lifelong acquaintance she did not know well, this neighbor who had saved her life, this cutie.

You got a crush on that boy? That one named for Texas?

"Nothing special," she said to her mother. "It's just a stick. By the way, Mom, when the Demitroffs' barn burned down, back in 1959, was somebody living in it or not?"

"It's so upsetting when you keep bringing up fire, Macey," said her mother. "Did you tell us everything there is to tell about getting your hair burned?"

"Now that I've felt fire, I'm interested in fire." The word fire wasn't quite right. It was arson that interested her. But she hadn't told her parents about any arson. "I'm doing it for my history paper."

"Oh, Mace," said her mother. "You're going to have to put so many hours into this project. At least choose a topic that matters."

"I'll ask Mrs. Johnson about other topics," Macey said. She might, too, although she'd be asking about topics for Austin. She was staying with the fire. "But I still want to know. Did anybody live in that barn? In 1959?"

"My science teacher. Mr. Sibley."

"There was an apartment then?" said Macey.

"Oh, yes, it was such a sweet place. Everybody oohed and ahhed when they saw it. Of course, I never saw it when Mr. Sibley was living there, but most years it was rented to a new teacher, and I'd bring a plate of Mother's cookies or a casserole and say hi and welcome to the neighborhood, and I'd wander around and inspect the apartment."

"But you didn't bring cookies to Mr. Sibley?" said Macey.

There was a slight pause. "I don't remember," her mothersaid.

But you do remember, thought Macey. You remember you were never inside when Mr. Sibley lived there.

Until now, Macey had forgotten the other pause, the faint pause before her grandparents answered questions about that old fire, and once more, the old fire prickled at her.

Videos