What the Fireflies Knew

KB tries to improve her circumstances. She decides that money will bring her family back together, and she is confident that she can get it. She searches for bottles to redeem to get the money to reunite the family, but unlike in Detroit, there aren’t any bottles on the roadside. Things aren’t much better with Nia. KB tries to atone by bringing caterpillars to her sister, including one that she names “Fuzz” and keeps in a jar provided by her grandfather. These efforts fail to charm Nia. KB is hurt when she overhears Nia calling her a brat during a conversation with Brittany, a friend who has arranged to stay with family in Lansing.

KB befriends the neighbor’s white children—Bobby and Charlotte—one day. The girl draws a racist picture that helps KB to see how this white girl sees her; KB likes her own hair and finds Nia’s coils hair to be beautiful, but Charlotte’s representation of KB’s hair is ugly. KB offers Anne of Green Gables to Charlotte, but Charlotte rejects the gift because mother thinks that the book is too mature for her. KB is used to reading such books. KB reads books from her grandfather’s shelves, including Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel about a woman’s quest for identity.