What the Fireflies Knew

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism, death as a result of substance abuse, domestic abuse, and sexual assault.

KB is the 10-year-old Black protagonist of the novel. At the start of the novel, KB loses her sense of safety when her father dies of a drug overdose, her family loses its home, and her mother sends KB and her sister to live with their grandfather. Early in the book, KB struggles internally with her sense of sadness and anger over her father’s death and externally with Nia, who responds to her father’s death by acting out and distancing herself from KB. KB eventually finds comfort in her relationship with her grandfather; she also learns about how others perceive her through her friendship with Bobby and Charlotte, two white children who are neighbors.

KB’s identity shifts as she uncovers secrets that adults have been keeping from her. When KB discovers that her mother is in an institution for treatment for depression, KB gains a sense of purpose when she decides to raise enough money to reunite the family in a single household with her grandfather. This adultified mission, pursued through poignantly juvenile schemes such as attempting to collect bottles, highlights the sense of KB as a child looking at an adult’s world through increasingly less naïve eyes.