Finally, a picture book about a young boy who wants to grow up to be just like his mom who is a firefighter. Billy is lucky enough to have two families: his mom and dad, and his four uncles at the firehouse. Clearly very proud of his mom, Billy revels in her speaking to his class about the details of her job. In a picture book with a relatively normal amount of text, Grambling succeeds in providing detailed descriptions of fighting fires, taking care of the equipment and the importance of teamwork in making this highly dangerous job as safe as possible. The placement of text and illustrations constantly changes, serving to keep things moving. Judicious use of oranges, red and yellows remind the viewer how serious the work of firefighting truly is. The combination of interesting, informative text with Manning’s clear, colorful illustrations will surely make this a favorite. It is especially notable for the fact that no fuss is made about Billy’s mom’s “non-traditional” career choice. Billy does indeed have an excellent role model. (Picture book. 4-8)
