Firefly Song: Lynn Frierson Faust and the Great Smoky Mountain Discovery
by Colleen Paeff; illus. by Ji-Hyuk Kim
Primary    McElderry    40 pp.
6/25    9781665931847    $19.99e-book ed.  9781665931854    $10.99

Tucked into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is Elkmont, Tennessee, where remarkable fireflies “Blink! Shine! Twinkle! Pop! Flash! Spark!” for six seconds and then go dark for six more—all at the same time. As Paeff tells it, an uncommonly observant girl named Lynn grows up summering there, reveling in the joys of the season, especially the fireflies. As an adult, Faust is astonished to find that nobody in the scientific community seems to know about the Elkmont fireflies. She makes it her business to tell them, an uphill battle for a self-taught naturalist. Kim’s watercolor and digital illustrations create a lush, light-dappled forest wonderland. His verdant nightscapes dazzle with the fireflies’ phosphorescent glow. Paeff writes with a countrified twang: “Lynn knows” that the scientific consensus that synchronous fireflies are not commonly found in North America “is just plumb wrong.” Aspects of the story are complicated, involving the National Park Service’s discontinuation of leases in Elkmont, and the present-tense narration does not help readers unsure of when it takes place to find their footing (Paeff’s author’s note and the 2017 publication date of what the bibliography describes as “Lynn’s book about fireflies” attest to the recency of the story). But Faust’s sense of awe glows as bright as Photinus carolinus, and that’s what readers will remember. Back matter includes firefly-friendly tips for those who want to follow in Faust’s footsteps.

From the September/October 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.