From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-The alarm rings at Fire Station Number Eight and the Firebears throw on their heavy coats, hats, and boots and race through town with their siren wailing. No job is too big or too small for these amazing bears. First they retrieve a cat stranded high in a tree, then put out a fire in a store, and finally rescue a mother and child from a house billowing with smoke. "Racing, rushing/To the scene-/Firebears, the rescue team!/Round the bend/House on fire!/Raise the ladder-higher, higher!" The action never stops in this fast-moving story. The illustrations, rendered in oils on illustration board, have a retro, naive '50s look and add a light touch to the seriousness of the firefighters' duties. Perfect to read before a field trip, or for a community-helper-themed storytime.
-Wendy Woodfill, Hennepin County Library, Minnetonka, MN Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
PreS-Gr. 2. A busy day for a firehouse crew begins with a kitten up a tree (dubbed a "false alarm," but tell that to the kitten), continues on to a raging fire in a store, the rescue of a mother and child from a burning house, and, finally, a weary return "Back again, / Through the gate. . . / At Fire Station Number Eight," as the suns sets. Greene's very simple rhymes caption small-town scenes of polished, toylike buildings, vehicles, and small, round-earred bears in red fire hats and slickers. Although this take on an ever-popular theme may not carry the high drama of Chris Demarest's
Firefighters A to Z (2000) and its sequels, children will applaud the heroic deeds of the courageous crew.
John PetersCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
