Fire Angels

November 1, 2016
On December 1, 1958, the Our Lady of the Angels Catholic elementary school on Chicago's North Side burned in a five-alarm blaze. Ninety-two children and three nuns died when smoke and heat blocked the exits of the overcrowded classrooms. Spanning the years between 1953 and 1967, Kern's (Mercy Goodhue, 2014) novel examines the fire from every angle, including from the perspective of the fire itself. The novel follows the tragedy room-by-room before describing the recovery processes of two young survivors, the church's reaction, and the investigation into the fire's cause. Kern speculates on the life and motivations of the alleged perpetrator, who had been 10 years old at the time, and his later arson trial for additional fires on Chicago's South Side. Though the writing is patchy, and some characterizations rely on stereotypes, Kern's author's note explaining that she was a child at the time of the fire, and could see the smoke from her home, lends a personal note to her fictionalized account of one of Chicago's most devastating events.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)