#MMGM: The Burning Season, by Caroline Starr Rose (audiobook review)

I'm posting today with the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle. Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.   

I got this book out of the library thanks to multiple positive reviews from other posters on the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays hop. The plot and setting revolving around a fire lookout in the Gila Wilderness were the main attractions. I also liked the cover--very dramatic! 

 

Title: The Burning Season

Author: Caroline Starr Rose

Publication Info: Audible Audio, 2025. 3 hours. Hardback by Nancy Paulsen Books,  256 pages.

Source: Library 

Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads):
In this coming-of-age survival story in verse, a fire lookout-in-training must find her courage when a wildfire breaks out on her watch.

Twelve-year-old Opal is deathly afraid of fire. Still Opal is preparing to become a fourth-generation lookout on Wolf Mountain, deep in the New Mexico wilderness. She, Mom, and Gran live at ten thousand feet in a single room at the top of a fire tower. They are responsible for spotting any hint of smoke before it becomes an uncontrollable blaze.

Instead of training for the lonely life of a lookout, Opal wishes she could be starting seventh grade in Silver City, attending real classes with kids her own age and even going to afterschool clubs like FFA. But Wolf Mountain has other ideas. When Mom makes the long trek to town for supplies and Gran goes missing, Opal is the only one to spot a tell-tale spiral of smoke moving up the mountainside. She’ll have to be braver than she’s ever been as she heads into the woods, beyond Wolf Ridge’s old blackened burn scar, to face down a fire on her own. But when a fire is what took her father away, and Opal herself knows the sting of smoke and lick of flames, how can she be brave enough when it really counts?

 
My Review:
Since I listened to this as an audiobook, the first thing to note is that I was seldom aware that it was a book in verse. For me, that's all to the better--I'm not sure I actually "get" the genre, but a good yarn is a good yarn, and that's what this adds up to. The verse part is why it's short, though--I guess one effect is to compress the story, which may make such novels appealing to struggling readers who still want an age-appropriate story.

There were a bunch of things I really liked about the book. It's got a great setting, in the mountains of New Mexico. In fact, the top of a mountain in New Mexico. I've always kind of wanted to live in a fire tower, for a while, so it was fun to see this. It's a gripping story, and the second half of the book gets pretty exciting.

Opal definitely makes some bad decisions, and the ones she makes because she's basically pouting are a bit cringe-worthy. Others are good examples of kid-think. Opal can only see one way through and out of situations, and that's what she does, at whatever cost. Sometimes it works out better than others. So that all ends up feeling oddly realistic, even if I wanted to shake her for being so pouty at times!

There is a long-dead parent, one Opal barely remembers, which might be gratuitous but also provides the excuse for the 3-generation female household in the lookout tower. It also adds reason and reality to Opal's fears when her mother is late arriving in town.

The story doesn't really quite match reality, something the author acknowledges in her end notes. No one gets to live year-round in a fire tower, so that basic premise requires a bit of suspension of disbelief. (On the other hand, I wonder if they'll need to start staffing the towers year-round, in those places that still use them at all--many places don't, but apparently the Gila Wilderness still finds human lookouts the most effective way to spot fires.) What Opal manages to do is probably not totally realistic, either, but the love that drives her to push herself beyond both her fear and her physical limits makes the story work.

The narration was essentially transparent--that is, I didn't notice anything particularly about it, which is good. In my opinion, a well-done audiobook should leave me feeling like I read it myself. 

My Recommendation:
It's not an earth-shattering tale, but it's a good adventure story featuring a girl, and those are always worth hanging onto. Might be good family listening, which would offer a chance to discuss why Opal makes the choices she makes.

 

FTC Disclosure: I checked The Burning Season out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  



Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025
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