FIREFIGHTERS IN THE DARK

Ceccoli’s beautiful, lyrical illustrations, in acrylics and pastels, give a mythic quality to Slater’s tale of firefighting derring-do, told by a little girl snugly asleep in her bed and imagining where the sirens are going. The fire truck pulls up to a castle, set on fire by a dragon who hastily blew on his potatoes to cool them. Next, they go to Mexico to help a lady who ignited a house fire by eating a very hot pepper. Then, it’s on to a baby boy who bounced so high on his bed he flew out the window. In between these exploits, the foursome (King, Penelope, Almondine and Bruce) eat their favorite foods and wash off the ash from their work. And sometimes, King puts his ladder up against the little girl’s tall pink house, climbs to her window and gives her a hose to spray away the fire in the stars. Endearingly, Slater captures a young child’s view of the world and a very different role for firefighters than usually seen by this audience. (Picture book. 3-7)