With The Fire On High Summary

In “With the Fire on High” by Elizabeth Acevedo, Emoni is a strong, resilient teen mother with a passion for and excellent talent for cooking. Acevedo divides Emonis's story into three different parts: The Sour, The Savory, and The Bittersweet. Each began with a recipe accompanied by a popular idiom that Emoni had made her own based on what was going on in her life in that section of the story. The first section of the story is labeled “The Sour”, reflecting on the not-so-good things going on in the life of Emoni. The original idiom used at the beginning of this portion is “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” This idiom is used to show Emoni's resilience throughout all of the challenges she has overcome: losing her mom, not seeing her father very often, having to work for money, getting

“I just. I’m not a quitter. I wanted to say, I promise to follow directions. Because I think about creating food all the time and even though I know a lot.I can learn more”(p.185). This shows how Emoni knew that she needed to stop pouting about something that had already happened and go do something to make things better in the future. Emoni is the embodiment of the saying “No use crying over spilled milk.” Finally, the last section of the book titled “The Bittersweet” comes with the idiom “When the world tries to break you, it makes you stronger.” This saying preaches strength and resilience, much like the last part of the book. Emoni is faced with choices about college and work, trying to do what is best for her while also thinking about what is best for her daughter and her family in the long run. When talking to Chef Williams, she says “And although I’ll be attending Drexel’s Culinary Arts program on a part-time basis, it’s not too far from here, so I can go to classes in the morning and be here by the lunchtime rush.” She says, “I’m not going to be there for the first