Catching Fireflies

Catching Fireflies by Sherryl Woods

*book deals with bullying*

I always love to come back to Serenity and see how the Sweet Magnolias are doing. This is number nine in the series and it touches on a subject that seems to be more and more prevalent in schools these days, bullying. Laura Reed is a English teacher at Serenity High School and she notices that one of her best students, Misty, is skipping class, daily.  Feeling like something more than just a teenager skipping classes, she goes to a fellow teacher that she knows has Misty in class to ask if the girl was missing from her class as well. Finding out that Misty, in fact is just skipping two classes a day makes her wonder just why shes doing it. 

Misty Dawson is a smart and bright junior in high school. Lately though Misty is being harassed by another student and she would rather skip classes than tell anyone about what's going on. She believes in her mind that because the person bullying her is popular and she isn't that no one is going to believe her.  The only person she trusts is her best friend, Katie, and she's even sworn her to secrecy.

I was instantly worried about Misty and how she felt that she couldn't talk to anyone about what was going on at school. I could feel the shame that she thought would be put on her if the adults in her life found out the cruel and sometimes explicit things being posted on a social media website.  Luckily she had a friend that wouldn't leave her in the cold to deal with it herself.

Reading this book I could feel the worry and agony that Misty went through as well as the pain of others that shared similar stories. I always love to dive in to Ms. Woods book, this book was no exception. I learned a lot though. I cried and laughed and cried some more.