Akira

Akira is one of the main characters of the novel. Akira lives in the Sierra Nevada region of California with her father Lars and her mother and younger sister. Because Akira has few friends, she is close to her father and to her horse Dodger. There is nothing she likes better than to spend her weekends riding horseback with her father though the woods and mountains. However, when she is out on one such outing at the novel’s start, Akira’s peace of mind falters when she spots “a thin gray wisp of smoke [rising] from the trees in the valley” (2). Although she knows the National Weather Service has already “issued a red flag warning for the Sierra Nevada range,” Akira does not press the issue with her father (3). She is indeed worried about the fire, but knows that talking about it too much will inspire an...