- Chapter Books
- Ages 9–12
- Contemporary
My Life on Fire
Part of the Cath Howe universeOpen the collection
After a house fire destroys everything she owns, a girl starts secretly taking other people's belongings to fill the hole, until she's caught and forced into a frightening bargain. A tense, tender story about loss, temptation and putting things right.
- Best for9–12
- FormatChapter
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
Tone
- Warm
- Bittersweet
- Thought provoking
- Suspenseful
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
When a fire tears through her home, Ren loses everything: her clothes, and above all her treasured collections of things, the little souvenirs and keepsakes that made her feel like herself. Her little brother Petie is inconsolable over his lost bear. Now the family is crammed into their grandmother's house, and everything feels precarious and wrong. Adrift and aching, Ren finds herself coveting other people's belongings, their clothes, hair clips and pens, and starts quietly taking them. It feels like a way to fill the emptiness, until she's caught and has to strike a terrifying deal to keep her secret. Meanwhile, thrown together with her kind classmate Caspar on the walk to school, Ren begins to see another way forward. Cath Howe's fifth novel is a gripping, sensitive story about family upheaval, the pull of taking what isn't yours, and the unexpected friendship that helps a girl find her way back.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
Best for independent readers of 9-12, with emotional and moral complexity that suits the upper end most. The tense plot keeps it moving and it reads well shared with an adult from about 8.
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- Best fit · 9–12
- Read aloud · 8–11
- Independent · 9–12
Prose load
Moderate
Visual support
None
Reluctant-reader friendly
Workable
Read-aloud quality
Workable
Preview before sharing if a child is sensitive to: poverty or hardship.
Bedtime suitability
2 / 5 · Better outside bedtime
Sensitive-child
3 / 5 · Mostly fine
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Emotional realism
- Family upheaval
- School stories
- Moral dilemmas
Avoid if
- Wants light escapism
- Wants gentle bedtime
Particularly good for children who are…
- Moving house
- Making friends
- Anxiety and worry
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
Ren's compulsion to take other people's things is uncomfortable and gripping, and the deal she's forced into once she's caught cranks up real tension. Readers understand exactly why she does it, which makes rooting for her to put things right irresistible.
- Being understood finally
- Breaking the rules safely
Why parents love it
Howe takes a hard subject, a child stealing in the wake of trauma, and handles it with real empathy rather than judgement, tracing exactly how grief and upheaval can pull a good kid off course. A powerful conversation starter.
- Conversation starter
- Great writing
About the author
Cath Howe.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
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