From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8 A fascinating overview of the people involved in fighting wildfires and the techniques and equipment they use. Detailed paintings aid in explaining how firefighters work and in describing the natural conditions that lead to initial fires and more dangerous developments such as blowups. Morrison introduces readers to fire lookouts and the tools they use to spot and chart the location of smoke in distant forests. He discusses the specialized tasks assigned to crews on the ground and in the air as they work to contain the flames. The importance of prescribed burns is emphasized as are the dangerous conditions that develop in forests of ponderosa pines when fires are not allowed to remove dead growth as part of a natural cycle. The pages are packed with visual and textual information, but readers who don't want to learn details about topics such as the operation of a sling psychrometer can concentrate on more general aspects. A thorough glossary is appended. Related books include Dorothy Hinshaw Patent's
Fire: Friend or Foe (Clarion, 1998) and Karen Magnuson Beil's
Fire in Their Eyes (Harcourt, 1999). Those titles use photographs to provide a different kind of immediacy. Patent offers a broad perspective on the entire subject of wildfires while Beil concentrates on personal narratives. However, both titles complement Morrison's detailed paintings.
Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Gr. 4-6. As in
Coast Mappers (2004), Morrison combines original art, history, and science in a compelling look at how humans attempt to tame and navigate the natural world. In each full-color spread, he combines multiple hand-painted images with smoothly flowing text that explains how forest fires begin, why they are a natural part of forest health, and how plants and animals naturally protect themselves from the blazes. Later sections clearly outline the intricate network of scientists and other workers who predict, spot, and control fires, and Morrison includes portraits of pioneering foresters who advanced firefighting techniques. The thickly brushed paintings don't offer the precise views that photographs, such as those in Elaine Landau's
Smokejumpers (2005), do. Still, Morrison's paintings evoke the intensity of the heat and smoke and the forest's web of life, while the close-ups of the equipment used to fight fires, along with detailed text accounts, will tantalize machine-minded kids. An excellent choice for classroom support, this will also make a good choice for sharing with young adrenaline addicts and tree huggers alike.
Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
