Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906 [Kindle Edition]

Deborah Hopkinson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–The terror of the 1906 disaster is brought powerfully alive in this fast-paced tale. When 12-year-old Nick Dray's grandmother dies, he is placed in an orphanage. He runs away, leaving Texas for the bright lights of San Francisco. Once there, he talks his way into a job at a stationery store, which he guards while the owner is away on business. One morning, the boy is startled awake by the earthquake and decides he will try to save the man's most prized possessions, including his dog, Shake. Nick also helps his neighbors escape their badly damaged rooming house and leads them to the safety of Golden Gate Park. Readers will feel as if they're in the middle of the nonstop action. Descriptions of the rubble, fire, and chaos are vivid and detailed. The geography and history of the city are woven smoothly into the story, placing all of the action into context. Nick is a thoroughly developed protagonist, as are the supporting characters. There are also some thoughtful insights into the nature of catastrophes, such as Disaster like this, it's the poor who suffer the most.–Kristen Oravec, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Strongsville, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Joining the spate of titles published in commemoration of the great earthquake's centenary, this engrossing tale takes Nicholas, a young Texas orphan newly arrived in San Francisco, on a heroic rescue mission through the largely uncontrolled fires that turned out to be more destructive than the quake itself. Falling in narrative and historical detail somewhere between Laurence Yep's Earth Dragon Awakes and William Lavender'sAftershocks (both 2006), this smoke-filled odyssey gives readers vivid glimpses of the disaster's scope, and, in Nicholas' encounters with his neighbors and other residents, wider insight into the range of human response to sudden catastrophe of any sort. Nicholas is an appealingly uncertain, unself-conscious protagonist, and his upward change of fortunes at the end seems well deserved. An afterword and a bibliography are appended. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 253 KB
• Publisher: Yearling (May 11, 2008)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0015DWLIK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Deborah Hopkinson is the award-winning of picture books, fiction, and nonfiction for young readers. She has won the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text twice, for A Band of Angels and Apples to Oregon. Her book, Sky Boys, How They Built the Empire State Building, was a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor awardee. Her recent works include Michelle, First Family, Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek, an ALA Notable, Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole, which won a 2009 Oregon Book Award, and Stagecoach Sal, named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009. She serves as Vice President for Advancement at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars *FORTITUDE & GRIT ADD UP TO A RIVETING STORY . . . *, September 26, 2006

By 

mcHaiku "nmi" (Brown County INDIANA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906 (Hardcover)

It is hard to imagine a story about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake being anything but riveting. Deborah Hopkinson's thorough research led her to build her novel around Nicholas Dray, a true life runaway from the county farm, befriended by a merchant a few days before the 1906 earthquake and devastating firestorm.

The author's story closely follows archived history and is
exciting for all ages to read. Class units will take students on many useful tangents, with teaching tools available via www.randomhouse.com/teachers. It may generate some discussion about emergency preparedness also.

Earthquakes are of universal interest and "Into the Firestorm" cannot be categorized as 'just' a boys' book - - even though teachers & librarians, frustrated at jump-starting "reluctant readers" will rejoice to recommend it to students. Hopkinson keeps the level of excitement high, and Nick's reactions believable. Deserted by his father, his emotional needs centered on his grandmother, and later in San Francisco on his Chinese-American friend Tommy, his employer/mentor Mr. Pat AND the dog who also was part of the true story of those ghastly fires.

Hopkinson deftly adds cotton-picking in Texas, and a fascination with the art of writing; reviewer mcHAIKU appreciates the quality these add to this story of a time when "stick-to-itiveness" was okay, and fortitude & grit added up to honest-to-goodness values. And for all readers, a five star reward.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting historical read!, March 23, 2007

By 

Karen Yingling "K. Yingling, Librarian" (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906 (Hardcover)

Deborah Hopkinson's Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906 (and the title really does help-- I won't have teacher questioning whether or not it is historical!) was great. Several good things going for it-- the title, the cover, and the first couple of lines:
"Hey, kid. Get back here and empty your pockets."
Nicholas Dray whirled to see a burly policeman pointing a black club right at him. He froze in astonishment. This should not be happening.

Yes! This will make a child pick up the book! There is some discussion of how Nick got to San Francisco, having run away from the cotton fields after his grandmother died, but it's done in flashbacks that are interspersed with the excitement of San Francisco. Have several students in mind for this and can't wait to get a copy! This author also did Shutting Out the Sky:Life in the Tenements of New York which I liked. I'll have to check for others!

This and other books reviewed at
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing Adventure Novel, October 9, 2006

By 

Teacher Who Loves Books (U.S,) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906 (Hardcover)

Into the Firestorm is the perfect book for boy readers, with an engaging hero, a dog, and lots of action. But we sometimes forget that girls like these kinds of stories as well. When I was young, I loved reading every kind of adventure, from mountain exploits to historical fiction sagas to war stories. Hopkinson's talent for research is revealed in small details here, and, as in her Klondike Kid and Prairie Skies series books, she also keeps the pace fresh. I loved Pat Patterson and the stationer's shop, and little Annie Sheridan. And Shake, of course! A winner from one of our most versatile writers for young people.