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Paradise On Fire, By Jewell Parker Rhodes

717 Words3 Pages

In the novel Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes, we are introduced to Addy, a teenage girl from the Bronx. In the story, Addy flies to rural California to take part in a wilderness adventure camp. Her grandma wants her to do the camp so she can journey away from her hometown and the bad memories that lie there. Addy makes lifelong friendships, builds new skills, and falls in love with nature. How does Paradise on Fire reflect the realities of the world we live in today? In the book, Addy and her friends discover their fondness for nature, but in the droughted forest, there is risk of wildfire. The timing, intensity, and frequency of drought in an area can have a significant impact on how large the wildfire is and how fast it spreads. …show more content…

In Paradise on Fire, Addy and her friends experience a fire and are always prepared for these things. My research connects with this book because Addy, Jay, DeShon, and Nessa must always be watchful of their surroundings because wildfires could easily surround them in a matter of minutes. In the middle of the book, Dylan makes the wrong choice on which way to go to escape the fire and argues with Addy about it. Dylan curses again, adding ‘you’re crazy Addy. Fires to the west spreading northeast” (p #138). Addy has been mapping the forest and ranch for a long time and knows which ways the fire will spread because of how droughted the forest is. Dylan should have listened to Addy, but he was too wrapped up in being the leader to listen to her reasoning. Leo teaches Addy many things about drought and how it affects trees. This motivates her to protect nature and be an environmentalist. “’Leo pats a tree trunk. His fingers flick, and bark crackles, falling. The ‘Drought stresses it. Makes it vulnerable to fire” (p #41). Drought controls how big the fire is, and in the dry forest, many trees are threatened by it. Leo teaches Addy how to protect the forest and the habitat. Something the reader might have learned from reading this book is that it is good to be part of a team or group and rely on them. Addy and her friends demonstrate this by relying on each

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