Extra Credit Blog Post #1. Draper, Sharon Mills. "Forged By Fire". New York, N.Y. Atheneum Books. 1997. Print.

ANNOTATION: 

Gerald's life is filled with struggles of socioeconomic barriers, and an abusive addict mother, living with an incestuous step-father and experiencing loss through death of loved ones. Gerald has the strong desire to overcome all of this pain he holds inside of him.  His relief comes from playing basket ball, having one true friend he can trust, and protecting his baby sister Angel. 

JUSTIFICATION FOR NOMINATION:

As a very young child, Gerald is left alone, abandoned many times by his addict mother, Monique.  He learns how to deal with her drug induced mood swings and only tries harder to be a 'good boy', so as not to get on Mama's nerves.  Monique's parenting skills, or lack thereof, are how Gerald finds his own way of protecting  and taking care of himself.  Monique leaves regular bruises, cuts, and cigarette lighter burns on little Gerald's body.  During another time when Monique abandons Gerald, at 3 years old, he plays with her cigarette lighter and burns the apartment down and is rescued from hiding behind the couch, his secret hiding spot.  Some relief of the abuse comes for Gerald while Monique is in prison, and he lives with his loving Aunt Queen for 6 glorious years.  Aunt Queen dies and Gerald is forced to live with his Mother, his abusive Step-Daddy, and his half-sister Angel.  For the next 10 years Gerald finds many ways to protect his sister, Angel, from Jordon's molestations, but is not always there to save her.  

Draper does a good job explaining how abused children feel and the poorly qualified adults who are abusing them,  The children lean on each other for support, thus gaining the courage to let the secrets out in order to get the appropriate help needed.  I felt so much anger, not only at the abusive parents, but at the people who were aware of this and did nothing, and especially the social system.  It's clear that the social and the economic systems failed Gerald and Angel.  There are so many children, each day, that slip through the cracks of the system only to be neglected and abandoned all over again.

This book is a powerful tool for any child or adolescent suffering with the private pain of abuse and the sickness of their secrets.  Help is available and its our duty, as adults, to make children aware of this so they don't feel any shame in asking for help.  There are some challenging issues in this book such as: incest/rape; abuse; spousal abuse; neglect; drug abuse; and underage drinking, however, how will young adults learn that they are not alone and where to go for safety and help.  This book resonates with young adults who are suffering or have suffered at the hand of abuse and made it out alive. 

GENRE:  Realistic Fiction, Multicultural, Coretta Scott King Award, ALA Book Award.