Little Fires Everywhere

Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

• Celeste Ng’s first novel; focuses on a Chinese-American family during the 1970s in Ohio
• also addresses themes of Motherhood and race

Little Fires Everywhere (TV Series)

• TV series starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington
• adaptation of the novel that touches on themes of The Ramifications of White Liberalism, The Right to Motherhood, and The Power of Art as Social Intervention

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

• novel about a woman who hires an African American college student to nanny for her child
• shares the theme of The Ramifications of White Liberalism

The Legacy of Redlining

• a podcast episode from the NPR show In the Thick of It that touches on The Ramifications of White Liberalism
• touches on the history and the legacy of redlining in the United States

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

• novel about a Chinese boy whose mother, an immigrant, mysteriously disappears, leaving him to be raised by a white family
• connects with the struggle Bebe wages to get her daughter back

Other Student Resources

Celeste Ng’s website

• provides background on Celeste Ng, showing some of the connections between her past and Little Fires Everywhere
• Includes links to her other writing for further reading

“Celeste Ng is More Than a Novelist” by Nicole Lamy

• a 2018 article from The New York Times that offers a background to Ng’s publishing history (Subscription may be required.)
• also describes Ng’s past, interest in writing, and life outside of her books

“Celeste Ng says that Little Fires Everywhere is a challenge to the well-intentioned white ladies”

• a BuzzFeed article that discusses Celeste Ng’s hopes for the effect of Little Fires Everywhere
• also describes the way that Ng created the world of Little Fires Everywhere

Teacher Resources

“A ‘Forgotten History’ of How the U.S. Government Segregated America”

• an NPR article that discusses the history of redlining by interviewing Richard Rothstein about his book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How the United States Segregated America
• provides additional context for the development of predominantly white neighborhoods like Shaker Heights
• touches on the theme of The Ramifications of White Liberalism

“There is No Post-Racial America”

• a 2015 article in The Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has written much on race in America (including “The Case for Reparations,” Between the World and Me, and The Water Dancer), in which he discusses race after the Obama presidencies and the ways that “colorblindness” hinders progress
• connects to Lexie’s assertion that “No one sees race” in Shaker Heights and the theme of The Ramifications of White Liberalism