Book Review: Words on Fire

    "Words on Fire" is a wonderful historical fiction about a girl named Audra who lives in Lithuania; a place overrun with Russian soldiers who are trying to completely destroy Lithuania's culture, religion, and most importantly, it's freedom.  After  loosing her parents, Audra, with nothing but a book and directions as a clue, sets off and ends up discovering a dangerous yet vital thing for all of Lithuania, book smuggling. 

Audra lives on a farm in Lithuania along with her mother, and her father who's a street performer. When she overhears her mother and father worrying about something dangerous, Audra is immediately suspicious, and grows only more suspicious when she sees Russian soldiers coming their way.  After she's given a locked book, and directions, she is told to run as fast as she can, leaving her parents to a horrible fate.

    I absolutely love this book! Shortly after starting the book, I knew it would be one of my favorites. Of course if you were to ask me what my favorite book is, I wouldn't be able to choose, but this is definitely at the top.  I would describe this book as thrilling and hard to put down. I know that when I was reading Words on Fire I had a very hard time putting it down. I would also describe this book as inspiring. Audra asks in the book why they smuggle books if it forbidden and extremely dangerous. Later she discovers the answer. The Russian soldiers were trying to get rid of Lithuania, and if they destroyed Lithuanian books, the people would eventually forget who they really were. Book smuggling reminded the people that they weren't Russians, they were Lithuanians. Another aspect of the book I personally really like is how Audra uses magic tricks to help get herself out of tough situations. She learned the tricks from her father, who's job was performing slight-of-hand. I love performing magic tricks in front of my family, so I was very happy that there was some of that in Words on Fire.  You must read the epilogue! The epilogue was easily my favorite part of the book. It's where loose ends meet, giving the story an incredibly heart warming ending.

        The recommended age range for Words on Fire is ages 9-12 and the reading level is 3-7. This book is not an old one, published in 2019, and is a fairly easy read. 

     

    I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you're looking for a book that you can't put down. With a big twist and risky, exciting plans, I would definitely give this book five stars.

-Amelia