The Night Fire

Sheila Martindale is poetry editor of Canadian Author and Bookman and
the author of No Greater Love.

I can’t recall from my childhood, or from that of my children, a book
about a house on fire. Generally speaking, such a topic would be
frightening to young children. But somehow The Night Fire works on
several levels. The main focus is on the firehall and the firefighters.
They prepare for a call by washing down the trucks, then they relax.
When the call comes they are ready, and they set off to put the fire
out. The nice touch here is the emphasis on the community—the
neighbors of the affected family are right there to offer assistance, so
the reader is not anxious about the poor victims. Back at the firehall,
we see the weariness of the crew, which includes women and older
men—nobody’s excluded here.

Written in rhyming couplets, and beautifully illustrated by the author,
The Night Fire will definitely appeal to the kindergarten crowd. Highly
recommended.