The Key to the Golden Firebird

May Gold is faced with the recent death of her Father. Her family starts to fall apart, as her Mom is always at work, Brooks gets absorbed in her new boyfriend Dave, and Palmer does nothing but watch tv. May has to get through with the grief from her Father's death and find out if she can really love Pete, the boy who used to pull the evil pranks.

It's been a year since the unthinkable happened. On that fateful day, Mike Gold had a fatal heart attack in his beloved 1967 golden Firebird Pontiac. Since they lost their father, the Gold sisters --- May, Brooks and Palmer --- have not been the same. Before, they were typical teenagers who enjoyed carefree summer pranks. Now, their mother is not around as much; she has to work the night shift as a nurse to support the family, and the three sisters are left to fend for themselves. THE KEY TO THE GOLDEN FIREBIRD tells the stories of three teenage sisters who are all very different, yet they're struggling with the same problem. May Gold, short for Mayzie, is the reliable sister --- she's smart, does well in school, works a part-time job to save money for college, and is expected to keep a watchful eye on her younger sister, Palmer. In a very un-Maylike turn of events, May fails her driver's exam. Pete Camp, the adorable dorky neighbor, volunteers to teach May to drive. During May's summer of driving lessons, she also encounters a bumpy ride of falling in love with someone she knew her whole life. Brooks Gold is the oldest. As a testament to their father's addiction to baseball, Brooks is named after the famous baseball player Brooks Robinson. Brooks herself is a star softball player, but in the summer after her father's death, she finds herself hanging out with a new wild boyfriend, Dave, and his inner-circle of misfits. When Dave suggests that she quit the team, she comes to a realization. Brooks thinks, "Her father had put a bat in her hand the minute she was strong enough to hold it up, and that was that. Afternoons and weekends were for playing. She didn't even know what people who didn't play sports did with their time. But she had to admit, she'd seen less and less of a point in playing in the last year." Once off the team, Brooks has more time to drink excessively, come home way too late, and get into trouble. Palmer Gold, the youngest, is also an amazing softball player. Even though she's only a freshman, she's a pitcher on the varsity softball team. Palmer lives in a world of her own, keeping her problems to herself. She doesn't tell anyone about the panic attacks that keep waking her up in the middle of the night. She also snoops around watching her sisters and rummaging through her mother's closet. During one of her investigations, she finds something she wasn't expecting that will be the key to helping her and her sisters feel better. Maureen Johnson's first novel tells the touching tale of three sisters' journey as they find a way to make peace with their father's death. The Gold family deals with their grief the same way they treat their problems --- silently. As a result, each sister has an emotional explosion at the end of the book. While dealing with their emotions, they are also forced to realize the importance of each other as family. At times sad and at times humorous, THE KEY TO THE GOLDEN FIREBIRD is an engaging read that

Tragedy can do one of many things. It can bring people together, but it can also cause people to separate. In the Gold's case it did both. May, Palmer and Brooks are sisters but they don't seem to have one single thing in common except for the fact that they share the same mother and father. May Gold was the middle child of the three sisters. She had always been the responsible one and the one everyone could count on. When a heart attack claims her father's life, May finds herself being weighted down with the family's burdens. In this story May finds herself and she also reconnects with her family through the pain that all of them have suffered. When I first started reading this book I wasn't sure what to expect. I must be truthful: my expectations were not very high. The title didn't bring much excitement. The qoute, "Don't judge a book by its cover" came to mind after I read this book. I could barely put it down. I found myself deeply indulged in this story. Some of the situations were predictable, but it was great, just the same. The title of this book truly does suit it. This book was an amazing treat. It's sure to be a keeper and an instant favorite.

I loved this story. It was funny, engaging, moving, and ultimately totally gripping. I read a lot, and in many genres (from SciFi to sufi mysticism - no kidding), and I quite literally could not put the Key to the Golden Firebird down. The characters were very real to me, and their situations sympathetic and interesting. The way people acted seemed very natural - just as confusing as people are all the time. I was desperate to find out if May could pull something good out of her awkwardness with Pete, and the spiralling troubles of her family, and ... well, I won't spoil the suspense for you. Read it, and love it yourself!!

My aunt gave me The Key To The Goldenfire Bird for my birthday. That was two days ago and I couldn't put it down. This is a great book! I don't want to give anything BUT let me tell you I laughed so hard at the beginning of the book that my mom asked if I'd hurt myself. I also cried and laughed some more.The sisters are so different from each other. I think I'm more like Brooks. Pete is the most awesome character ever. I give this book a 5 out of 5 and will definitely read it again before the summer is done.(...)