The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Harris, Kai. What the Fireflies Knew. Tiny Reparations Books, 2022.

What the Fireflies Knew is Kai Harris’s 2022 coming of age novel that centers around protagonist, KB. It is set primarily in Lansing, Michigan, but there are frequent flashbacks to Detroit, Michigan as this is where KB and her family lived until the summer of 1995. Other main characters in the novel include Kai’s mother and father, her sister Nia, and her Granddaddy. While the novel mainly centers around the first person narrator, KB, her sister Nia also is coming of age in this novel.

The novel begins with a depiction of the sisters’ father, referred to as Daddy, at his death in January 1995. KB finds him and leaves to go get her mother. Her mother starts screaming, and KB starts screaming as well. After this very brief depiction, the novel moves to June 1995. KB, Nia, and their mother drive to Lansing. Once they get there, the girls learn that they will be staying there with their granddaddy as their Momma goes back to Detroit. She says she will come back and get them when she can. She lies to them and tells them she is staying at the same hotel they all stayed at after becoming homeless after Daddy’s death.

KB and Nia have a difficult time. Nia has blocked KB out and only wants to listen to music, read her magazines, and hang out with her friends and boys. KB does not know that Nia’s father pushed her down the stairs once when she was trying to stop him from doing drugs. This along with all the other pain that their father’s addiction caused, leads Nia to become angry and withdrawn. KB does not know how to approach her sister. She is desperate for Nia’s companionship and esteem. She gets very happy when she thinks she is about to get her sister’s friendship, and she gets full of rage when she sees it quickly taken away.

KB manages to establish a relationship with her grandfather. She gradually finds out that Granddaddy is estranged from Momma because he told her that she looked like a whore in a headshot she had made. He said this because he was afraid of losing her like he lost his wife who died. KB makes friends with some white children in the neighborhood despite Granddaddy’s warnings to stay away from them because they come from a racist family. While she finds companionship with them, they eventually accuse her of stealing a bike they loaned her. She also befriends a boy named Rondell. They become friends at a pool. Later when she sees him at Pizza Land on her birthday, she shows him her underpants because she is upset that she walked in on Nia and their step-cousin making out. When Granddaddy goes on an overnight fishing trip and Nia leaves with friends, KB decides she is sick of being left behind, so she decides to run away. She does not know where to go, and she ends up at the pool hoping to see Rondell so she can ask him where to go. He takes her to sit on a piece of wood near a dumpster, and he sexually assaults her.

Eventually Nia and KB have a physical fight because KB is so frustrated with her sister. KB eventually tells Nia about the assault, and KB tells Nia about their father pushing her down the stairs. They finally have someone to talk to, and their relationship is restored. While they hope to convince Momma to move to Lansing with them and Granddaddy, at the end, Granddaddy helps the family put a downpayment on a house in Detroit and there are plans for the family to remain close.