Outskirts Press, INC.

What strange power lies in their eyes?

In the riveting first book of the Eyes of Fire series, we meet a boy named Ray, his mother, her father, and his grandfather’s mother—a family who has attained a measure of success despite racial challenges. The story follows Ray, first in an all-white school in California, and later in cities where discrimination is more subversive. Ray’s grandfather and mother must figure out how to help Ray defend himself against prejudice without revealing the fire in his eyes…their powerful family secret. The Eyes of Fire series features the dynamic lives of African Americans from all over the United States, Africa, Trinidad, Israel, and Jamaica, including those who are part Native American. It follows their journeys from slavery to bought wives—and reveals how previous African-American generations have dealt with oppression and other obstacles.

ALMOST THE BEGINNING Ray was excited about going to school. Ray’s mother had spent an entire year, making sure he knew his numbers, letters, and could read. However, Ray had a couple of challenges; one he was aware of, the other he would discover at school. Ray’s challenge was his speech impediment. For some reason, he just couldn’t get a consistent flow of words out of his mouth without his lips and tongue getting mixed up with his teeth and just doing their own thing. He couldn’t figure out why some letters in some words he would just get stuck on. Then, those letters just wouldn’t get unstuck from his tongue or his lips! It was just awful. However, Ray’s mother, Lena, always smiled and told Ray to stop and start over. If others were listening, they would finish Ray’s words for him. Lena would just give them a stern look and shake her head at them; she wanted Ray to learn to talk “normal.” As Lena worked hard and shopped in the nearby town for a few clothes for Ray to begin school, she wondered how Ray would fit into a more stable life. She also wondered if Ben would be alright. Lena had married Ben out of love. Ben had married Lena to get back at his family. Some of them didn’t like Lena’s color---she was too dark. They wanted Ben to find someone who looked more like them. Most of them could have passed for Mexican, Puerto Rican, Filipino, French, or even White. Lena and Ray was messing up their plans of passing for anything but a Black person. Plus, Ray was NOT really Ben’s son. People didn’t talk about it much, but Lena explained to Ray what happened. She had been tricked by some of Ben’s relatives into believing he had used her and jilted her at the last minute to run off with another woman.