The Abaleda Voluntary Firehouse Band

Kathy Corrigan is the journals editor at the OISE Press.

This is a picture book par excellence. While the text introduces the
seven members of the Abaleda Voluntary Firehouse Band, and their
instruments, Hartman’s fine watercolors not only portray these
characters, but they also follow the adventures of a hapless little
mouse, unmentioned in the text, returning home from the library to make
a hot cup of tea. When the mouse’s house fills with smoke from the
kettle gone dry, the firefighters are beckoned. The mouse’s picture
story erupts into the firehouse crew’s word-and-picture world with the
ringing of the telephone. The two stories are joined as the gallant band
members come to the mouse’s rescue.

Young uses a bouncy, rhyming style to describe the band members, a
style well suited to the light touch and humor of Hartmann’s drawings.
In fact, text, illustrations, and design work so well together that
it’s hard to realize they weren’t all created by one mind.