{"id":45724,"date":"2025-09-16T21:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45724"},"modified":"2025-09-16T21:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:08:07","slug":"review-of-firefly-song-by-colleen-paeff-illustrated-by-ji-hyuk-kim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45724","title":{"rendered":"Review of Firefly Song, by Colleen Paeff, illustrated by Ji-Hyuk Kim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/firefly_song_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/firefly_song_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"227\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-45726\" \/><\/a><em>Firefly Song<\/p>\n<p>Lynn Frierson Faust and the Great Smoky Mountain Discovery<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Colleen Paeff<br \/>\nillustrated by Ji-Hyuk Kim<\/p>\n<p>Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2025.  40 pages.<br \/>\nReview written September 16, 2025, from a library book.<br \/>\nStarred Review<\/p>\n<p><em>Firefly Song<\/em> stands out among picture book biographies for several reasons, the first being that it&#8217;s got gorgeous art.  I love the picture of the twilight forest dotted with fireflies and the picture of young Lynn Faust jumping into a Great Smoky Mountains swimming hole.<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s also wonderful because of the story it tells.  Lynn Frierson Faust essentially trained herself as a scientist.  As a child, she enjoyed the dazzling display of the synchronous fireflies at her family&#8217;s summer cabin.<\/p>\n<p>When she tried to find out more about fireflies (because those were so wonderful), she discovered that scientists believed there were no synchronous fireflies in North America.<\/p>\n<p>But how to let the scientists know they are wrong?  She was met with plenty of skepticism.<\/p>\n<p>It took her years of work and plenty of research to get other scientists to come and confirm what she&#8217;d realized all along &#8211; that a species of synchronous fireflies lives in the Great Smoky Mountains.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The fireflies of Elkmont and their light show are famous now.  Each summer, thousands of visitors travel from clear across the world to witness the silent serenade of <em>Photinus carolinus.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There&#8217;s nice back matter for those who are intrigued as I was and want to find out more.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colleenpaeff.com\/\">colleenpaeff.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/hanuol.com\">hanuol.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1665931841\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find this review on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\">Sonderbooks<\/a> at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Nonfiction\/firefly_song.html\">www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Nonfiction\/firefly_song.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?page_id=23\">Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n<p>Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Firefly Song Lynn Frierson Faust and the Great Smoky Mountain Discovery by Colleen Paeff illustrated by Ji-Hyuk Kim Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2025. 40 pages. Review written September 16, 2025, from a library book. Starred Review Firefly Song stands out among picture book biographies for several reasons, the first being that it&#8217;s got gorgeous art. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,11,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45724"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45727,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45724\/revisions\/45727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}