Erin Downing

Controlled Burn Erin Downing

From acclaimed middle-grade and chapter-book author, Erin Soderberg Downing, Controlled Burn is a story that blends family, friendship, fire, and the rocky path toward healing our deepest fears.



Twelve-year-old Maia's mom says she's lucky she noticed something as early as she did. Lucky to have smelled the smoke, lucky to have pulled her sister, Amelia, out of their burning house. But is it really "lucky" when Amelia's still in the hospital, in a coma, covered in burns? And is it "lucky" when maybe it was Maia's candle, left unattended, that started the fire?



Maia has already spent her life suffering from her fears and anxieties even before carrying the burden of this secret. Now, sent to spend the summer with her grandparents in Northern Minnesota, she will find that these personal anxieties and demons are intent on following her unless she makes the decision to change the course of her own narrative. But she barely knows her Grandma and Grandpa. She's not excited that she must go with Grandpa on his daily motorcycle rides to the ranger tower, where he spends each day watching out for forest fires. There are no kids in town her age--only her new nine-year-old neighbor who is intent on getting his Bear Scout badge at all costs and a stray dog who Grandpa claims isn't his even though he feeds it every day.



It's all too much. Especially when guilt and anxiety are intent on following Maia everywhere she goes. But as she will soon find, nature can be our greatest teacher. And sometimes the toughest exteriors have the softest hearts. As Grandpa Howard begins to come out of his shell and Maia's finds the resolve to face her fears, she'll begin to discover that there's a fine line between fear and adventure. And when lightning strike sparks a forest fire right near the ranger tower, Maia will have to summon all her bravery and overcome her self-doubt to save both her grandpa and the entire town.