Customer Reviews

Rain of Fire (Clarion books)

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October 6, 2005

Steve's life is pretty good until Celestino moves into the neighborhood and starts to control everything. Steve's two best friends, Donny and Kenny, now follow Celestino and leave Steve and his other friend Becca by themselves. Steve feels like he has lost everything. Steve and Becca come up with a plan to make Celestino look bad so Kenny and Donny would come back to them. The plan backfires so Steve started telling lies but Celestino has too much evidence against them. Telling lies keeps getting Steve in trouble and he wonders if he will ever be able to stop telling them. This is a fun story of kids getting into trouble and trying to straighten things out.
This story shows that lying will get you in trouble. For example, in the book Steve lied to the other kids and said that in the war his brother would aim the gun so that he would miss and wouldn't kill anyone. This fake story was so convincing that the other kids tried to turn Steve's brother, Matthew, into the FBI. This just causes more trouble for everyone. Steve lied some more and said that his brother earned a medal in the war. Matthew had no idea that Steve had told that lie so when he was talking to Steve and his friends he told them he never got a medal. Steve was really embarrassed. Another time that lying got Steve in trouble was when Steve and Becca stole Donny's bike and tried to frame Celestino for it. When they were caught Steve denied stealing Donny's bike. For this, Celestino, Kenny, and Donny got revenge by tying them up and leaving them in a foxhole.
This book also has a lot of really exciting scenes. For example, after Steve and Becca stole Donny's bike, Celestino led them through the woods to go play at the foxhole. When Steve and Becca walked into the clearing where the foxhole was, they were ambushed by Kenny and Donny. Donny and Kenny knocked them into the foxhole and tied them up. Then they went home and left Steve and Becca there for hours. Another good scene is when Steve and Becca, under Celestino's orders, had to steal dynamite from the quarry. Steve did not get any dynamite but was able to get away with a blasting cap. They were seen and almost got caught by the workers. Steve knew this would get him in trouble. Another exciting scene is when Donny, Kenny, Becca, and Steve ambush Celestino to get back at him and tie him to a tree. They set fake dynamite a few feet away and lit the stolen blasting cap. They knew when it blew up it would scare him but not be as dangerous as real dynamite. Right before the blasting cap blew up Steve had a change of heart and jumped on top of it at the last minute.
This book also shows that sometimes kids either believe what they want to believe or just have a hard time understanding things. One example of this is when Steve told the story about Matthew aiming the gun so it wouldn't hit anyone. Steve told himself that his brother was missing on purpose because he couldn't stand the fact that his brother was killing people in the war. Matthew's stories about the war confused Steve. Steve didn't understand how people tell you all your life that it is wrong to hurt people and then they send you off to war and tell you to kill people. Also Steve had a hard time understanding why lies kept pouring out of his mouth like when he was telling the other kids about Matthew.
This is a wonderful book about kids who can't seem to stay out of trouble. I would recommend this book to kids of all ages. It teaches some lessons but at the same time is a fun and exciting story that everyone will enjoy.

C. Chapman