Be Safe around Fire

October 1, 2014
Preschool-G In this entry in the Be Safe! series, a little girl provides a tutorial for the toys in her dollhouse on fire-safety rules that she's learned at school. As she asks her tiny audience questions about fire hazards, the images zoom into the dollhouse, where the characters come to life and act out the right and wrong things to do in various scenarios. Although the responses that the toys give are sometimes comical ( What do you do if you see matches lying around? / Stick them up our noses? ), they encourage readers to think and draw conclusions, and they do not distract from the seriousness of the topic. With text and images that prompt inquiry, digestible concepts that are playfully presented, and an appended review of fire-safety rules and vocabulary, this should find wide classroom use.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)