I am trying to find a book from around 1974 or 1976 time frame. The title is Something for Jimmy. It is about a young boy and his friends who found some fireworks and Jimmy lit the fire works and they exploded in his hand causing Jimmy to go blind. I would really love to find this book.
This is definitely Follow My Leader by James Garfield (1957). While retrieving a baseball, one of Jimmy’s friends finds a leftover firecracker that had been discarded because the fuse was too short. Jimmy’s friend Mike lights the giant firecracker – despite warnings not to from his friends – and accidentally throws it toward Jimmy. Jimmy ducks, but is too late and it explodes in his face, costing him his eyesight. The story follows Jimmy as he learns to deal with his blindness, learns Braille, and attends guide dog school where he meets Leader, a German shephard who becomes Jimmy’s “eyes.”
Could it be “Follow my Leader” by James Garfield? It’s about a little boy named Jimmy who goes blind playing with fireworks. (Much of it is about his guide dog.)
This *might* be Follow My Leader by James Garfield. The story is mostly about a boy and his guide dog, but the boy goes blind because of fireworks.
Read the description and I, too, instantly though of “Follow My Leader,” one of my most re-read books of all time.