Tuesday Storytime: Firefighters

I love firefighter books.  They're exciting, the kids adore them, and they're just on that edge of being scary, while still providing a comforting reassurance that the heroes win and the fires always go out in the end.

The Firefighters
Sue Whiting, illustrated by Donna Rawlins
ISBN: 9780763649975
Australian class plays "pretend" firefighters, before getting a visit from the real deal.

I've used this several times as a storytime book, but not for a while now - I do try not to use my favorites too very often.  This one especially, since it's such a stand-out in tone and story from other fire-fighting books, I feel it's fairly memorable, and really try to save it for every few years.  That said, it is my single most favorite firefighter book to present to kids.
Why?  It starts off with a trio of kids and their teacher, gamely along for the pretend adventure, traveling around in cardboard box firetrucks to put out a fire (a half-painted red wall) with corrugated-perforated drainpipe "hoses" and bandana oxygen masks.  Heck yes!  I love any picture book that references the fun of imaginative play.  But really we get two books in one, because after our game of pretend firefighting, the real firefighters come by in their truck (a guy and a girl) to show off the vehicle, to demonstrate escape methods (the Aussie method is "get down low and go go go" which is repeated several times), and to generally be awesome role models.
The illustrations are likewise lovely - Rawlins has done a really good job creating vibrant and lively faces and postures.  I could wish for a bit more diversity - there's the requisite token audience member but that's all.  On the other hand, the gender split is equitable - our main quartet are two boys and a girl and a woman teacher, and our firefighters are also evenly split.  There are bright colors and exciting compositions, but everything is very clear and specific - easy to focus on, and easy to understand the emotions and context of the pictures.
Just an excellent book all around.    


This is the Firefighter
Laura Godwin, illustrated by Julian Hector
ISBN: 9781423108009
Rhyming sequence follows a firefighter from the station through a completed rescue.

This one is also a repeat use for me.  It's hard to find firefighting books that are interesting but not too scary for really tiny ones, and this one goes right up to that line for me.  "This is the firefighter, these are his clothes" is the first page, and then the next spread introduces us "this is his truck, and this is it's hose" on the ground floor of the station.  We then follow an alarm bell to a fire in an apartment building with flames licking out of the windows.  We get some real excitement here that might be a bit much for some delicate or sheltered or very emotional kids - the firefighters use their axes to break down the doors to rescue people from inside, to rescue a cat from a burning apartment, and to ride the tall ladder up to the top floor to rescue a couple from a smoky window.  All ends well back down on street level with the film-crew recording, the requisite reunion between cat and child, and we end with a spread overview of the city from the distance with black smoke fading away into a sunset "This is the smoke as it drifts far away.  This is the glow at the end of the day," before pulling back to the station to show the company "This is the firefighter.  This is the hero."


Firefighters in the Dark
Daskha Slater, illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli
ISBN: 9780618554591
A young girl drifts off to sleep while the sounds of the nearby fire station influence her dreams.

I love this one, and it also is a repeat.  Firstly, we have a slight difference for the firefighting stories so far - our narrator is a girl.  Secondly, we're in the realm of imagination and dreams here, which is also a difference from the usual.  Finally, the stories that she makes up as to why things are on fire are delightful exercises in child-logic and are also fairly innocuous - nothing is really frightening here, just occasionally peculiar.  As the girl falls asleep, she can hear the sirens of the firefighters, and she is sure she knows where they're going: first to a castle with fifteen baby princesses that was set on fire accidentally when a dragon (invited for dinner) tried to blow on his food to cool it - and of course set the table on fire.  Next up, the sirens are fainter, so naturally they're off in Mexico, where the red-hot-chili peppers cause a lady to drip fire embers from her mouth before she and the resulting fire flowers are doused by the firefighters.  Finally we have a rescue - a young boy bounces on his bed so high that he ends up next to Pluto, and the firefighters use their ladder truck to bring him back down because it's his bedtime.  Dreamy colors and impressionistic landscapes and framing makes this a very different sort of firefighting book, and one that is really fun to show to kids, because they are quick to announce that this girl is imagining or dreaming all these crazy things.