Author/Illustrator: Julie Brinckloe
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Awards: NA
Age Level: 5-8 years old
Summary: Fireflies is the story of a young boy (name not specified) who longs to hold the precious moonlight in his hands. He waits to the perfect time of night and then rushes to the cellar to make his jar perfect for his soon-to-be-caught fireflies. Using Momma's scissors, he punches holes in the top of the jar to ensure air for the fireflies. He calls to his friends, "fireflies" and they all join together with jars in hand in hopes to catch these moonlight creatures. The fireflies bring them so much joy and wonder of the universe. There are endless amounts of them to catch and hold. The children wave their hands in the night sky like nets to and feel the bright fireflies against their arms. Once they are tired and have filled their jars to the top, they bring the jars back into their homes using the jars as night lights. The young boy stares amazed at the fireflies as the blinked on and off. He continues tow watch them fly in the jar until he noticed the light growing dim, and less flight in their wings. Then quickly flew off his covers, opened the jar, and let his fireflies fly free into the moonlight. Although he was sad that his jar was empty when they left, he still had hope inside that he will later collect the fireflies again.
Illustrations in the story followed a black and white scheme with pops of yellow to enhance the color of the fireflies. The characters seem to be sketched with pencils and they resemble real human beings.
In my classroom, I would try to find a place to see real life fireflies and bring them contained to my classroom for the students to see. This would really bring life to the story and appreciate the emotions of the characters in the book.
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