The fire-eaters - Web Teacher Material

Hodder Literature: a new and exciting series of literature titles for Key Stage 3 for whole class use.

It's 1962 and Bobby Burns is bracing himself for the beginning of term.

Not only is he starting at the cheerless grammar school but his dad is mysteriously ill and the Cuban Missile Crisis threatens to trigger off nuclear war - things are changing in his sleepy Keely Bay.

But then he's got his friends to help him, all fearless in their own ways: his old friends, tough guy Joseph Connor and the wonder-working Ailsa Spink; and his new ones, Bohemian Daniel Gower and the fire-eating street performer McNulty.

With thoughts of power, pain, death, war and friendship swimming around in his head, Bobby must come to terms with both injustice and hope at home, school and in the world outside of Keely Bay.