Forged by Fire

After finishing Tears of a Tiger, I had no choice but to immediately launch into the sequel. I was actually introduced to Sharon Draper's Hazlewood High trilogy through my student teaching experience, and it was Forged by Fire that was being read as a read-aloud by my Cooperating Teacher. We hadn't gotten very far by the time I left the classroom, and I have honestly been looking forward to finding out what happens to Gerald and his family. And now that I've successfully read the book in its entirety, I can say that I loved this book just as much as I loved Tears of a Tiger. Everything I said about Draper's style in the first book - her graceful and careful handling of extremely difficult content - rings true here as well. Gerald's life, starting here in his toddler years and much before the timeline of Tears of a Tiger, is extremely difficult and heartwrenching to read, but Draper once again manages to write about these circumstances while keeping the book very PG-rated. This book ties into the plot of its predecessor well by beginning with Gerald as a toddler and then gradually moving forward in time until it "catches up to" Tears of a Tiger in the order of events. Because of this, the book - which would still be extremely powerful on its own as a stand-alone novel - becomes more emotional for readers who know what will happen to the boys as the plot continues because they have already read about the accident in the first book. Forged by Fire would be an excellent book to recommend to a student for silent, individual reading but would also be great for an engaging and emotional read-aloud as well. My only word of caution is that there are clear mentions and suggestions of sexual molestation in this plot that repeatedly comes up, so it would be wise to know where those parts are and know how you will skip over them and/or edit them for a read-aloud if you are uncomfortable reading them straight from the text. They are only implied and suggested, rather than described explicitly, but you may still feel that it's necessary to edit somewhat. Overall, though, the Hazlewood High trilogy continues to be fantastic, and I can't wait to get my hands on Darkness Before Dawn.