Synopses & Reviews
When eight-year-old Tessa Lee and her brother, Travis, are abandoned in a campground by their desperate mother and her boyfriend of the moment, they are left with only two things: a phone number written in Magic Marker on Traviss back and their mothers favorite housecoat, which she leaves wrapped around her sleeping children. This housecoat, painted with tiny fireflies, becomes totemic for Tessa Lee, providing a connection to her past and to the beautiful mother she lost.
Seven years later, when word arrives that her mother has been spotted working at a tourist trap on a seaside boardwalk not far from where Tessa Lee lives, she sets off on a dangerous journey to try to recover what has been taken from her.
Steeped in the rich Southern atmosphere for which Sheri Reynolds has long been hailed, Firefly Cloak is a vivid coming-of-age novel of family, loss, and redemption.
Also available as a Random House Large Print edition and as an eBook
From the Hardcover edition.
Synopsis
Abandoned at a campground by their desperate mother and current boyfriend, eight-year-old Tessa Lee and her brother, Travis, are left only with her favorite housecoat, used to cover them, and the phone number of the children's grandparents, two items that many years later prompt Tessa Lee to embark on a desperate odyssey in search of what she has lost. Reader's Guide included. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.
About the Author
Sheri Reynolds teaches writing and literature at Old Dominion University. She is the author of the
New York Times bestseller and Oprah Book Club pick
The Rapture of Canaan, as well as two other critically acclaimed novels,
Bitterroot Landing and
A Gracious Plenty.From the Hardcover edition.
Reading Group Guide
This guide is designed to help you direct your reading groups discussion of Sheri Reynoldss atmospheric and touching novel Firefly Cloak.
1. Sheri Reynoldss characters are vibrant and so fully realized that they have a way of taking up residence in your heart. Who is your favorite, and why?
2. Hully Sanderss Mobile City is clearly in the South, and on the coast, but it could truly be in any number of states. Why do you think the specific location is never mentioned? Do you think this was a deliberate choice the author made?
3. Tessa Lee is part adult and part child, with one foot in imaginary lands and the other in a life of trauma. Do you think, despite this, she will flourish in life?
4. Why do you believe Tessa Lee latched on so strongly to the cloak-and to fireflies-as a talisman and an obsession? What do fireflies have in common with Sheila and Tessa Lee?
5. The novel interweaves many full and lovely themes. Which ones-motherhood, magic, loss, redemption, symmetry/geometry, and flight, to name a few-resonated most with you personally, and why?
6. As readers, we never actually meet Lewis/Pop-Pop or Travis; we only see them through other characters memories. Were they any less real to you because of this?
7. Sheilas killing of the baby birds is a dramatic, tense, almost unbearable scene. Did you feel, while reading it, that Sheila was doing to the baby birds what she couldnt bring herself to do to her children? In her mind, was Sheila murdering them or freeing them?
8. Was Sheilas stay at the house with seventeen locks real or a hallucination? Was the old man an actual person or a metaphor?
9. Was the incident at the Cock-a-doodle-doo, when Lil slapped the black men at the bar, shocking to you? Did you feel it was out of character, or particularly revealing?
10. “All [Lild] ever wanted was to give Sheila the life she hadnt had herself. Mostly shed wanted to keep her safe, pass along strong values, not let her be mistreated or experience adult things too soon” (page 172). Lil gave Sheila and Tessa Lee very similar upbringings. Had Lil not softened and grown herself, would Tessa Lee have headed down the same destructive path as her mother? Why or why not?
11. Rash is an unexpectedly complex character. Do you think he pitied Tessa Lee? Did he see himself in her? Did he admire her? Do you think his life was better for having met and helped her?
12. Why do you think Tessa Lee got her nipple pierced? Were you shocked that she went through with it? What do you think it revealed about her innermost strengths and weaknesses?
13. Do you believe Sheila, Lil and/or Tessa Lee achieved redemption in the novels final pages? Why or why not? Who do you believe was most in need of it?
14. Will Sheila stay with Tessa Lee and Lil? Or is the better question: Will Tessa Lee stay with Sheila and Lil?