Order History
Premium Membership & Rewards
Help Center / FAQ
Megan Frazer Blakemore’s The Firefly Code is an Intricate and Layered Middle Grade Mystery
Set in Old Harmonie, a futuristic Utopia outside of Boston, twelve-year old Mori lives with her parents on Firefly Lane. A place where it’s not the fences that keep you safe, but the residents within. Operated by the corporation Krita, this Kritopia is just one planned community of many across the United States. With cookie-cutter homes lining her street, Mori’s perfectly choreographed and planned life suddenly changes when new girl Ilana moves in to the neighborhood
The children of this planned community are either conceived naturally, designed with the help of genetic engineering, or are a combination of both. Mori’s great-grandmother, Dr. Lucy Morioka, was an original founder of Old Harmonie and, “figured out how to tweak the brain in such a way that you could release a hidden skill without damaging the mind.” Parents can further tweak their kids to get them just the way they want them to be; dampening some characteristics (such as bravery) while enhancing other character traits.
Ships in 1-2 days.
On their thirteenth birthday, kids of Old Harmonie learn their genetic code and the truth of their nature versus nurture composition is revealed to them. It is at this age that Mori and her friends learn of their latency, or special skill; puzzles, mathematics, memory, music, arts, language, and mechanical skills are just some of the options. As if thirteen isn’t awkward enough with puberty and adolescent changes, some of the kids here struggle with the challenge of trying to understand their place in this highly designed world.
After Ilana comes to town, Mori’s relationships with her friends Julia, Theo, and Benji are put to the test. Her friends theorize that Ilana is part of a witness protection program, is a government narc, or an undercover reporter. Mori ignores her friends and she and Ilana form a tight friendship. Together they discover that at the edge of town, in Oakedge, they can just be themselves. Free from expectations or the rigid rules placed on residents by founders Dr. Varden and Dr. Morioka, the girls enjoy being together under the cover of the old forest trees.
Mori’s friends reluctantly accept seemingly too-perfect Ilana into their group, and questions start to arise as to whether or not Ilana is really from another Kritopia. Mori refuses to give in to speculation and eventually the group dubs themselves the Firefly Five. As they spend their summer safely occupying the driveways and pools in their neighborhood, its house number 9 at the end of Firefly Lane that ultimately tempts the group into more exciting adventures.
House number 9 is where Dr. Varden started Old Harmonie, and the doctor left suddenly and without reason when Mori was younger. Once the Firefly Five step into the house, they step back in time and a number of secrets are revealed. Old computers that plug in the wall, robotic parts, jars of honey, and an artificially intelligent bee named Prince Philip intrigue Mori and keep her coming back to learn more about the early days of Old Harmonie.
Mori’s discoveries result in the Five’s having to face some hard truths. “The truth, it turns out, was far too fantastical and strange for it to ever have occurred to us, let alone for us to defend or debate it. It was in us all the time, and we never saw it. The truth. It’s not always as real as it appears.”
Megan Frazer Blakemore is the author of several middle grade books and has once again created believable characters—even when the characters themselves don’t know what to believe. Mori is a vulnerable, yet empathetic and smart character with equally (although very slightly) imperfect friends.
Old Harmonie is a place of discovery, and Mori and her friends go on a journey full of ethics, cloning, and Artificial Intelligence. The Firefly Code is a great combination of fiction, mystery, and the discovery of what makes a friendship real.
The Firefly Code is on shelves now.