The Little Fire Engine was published by Random House in 1946. It was written and illustrated by Lois Lenski.
There’s a fire in town. Fireman Small and his firefighters go to the scene. They save a young girl’s life and put out the fire. The end.
Come to think of it, the above description makes this story sound pretty flat. The interesting part of this book is the procedure of how the firemen work. There’s a bit of technical detail about the parts of the firetruck and procedure of hooking up the hose to the fire hydrant.
The story has some onomatopoeic expressions so parents who read this will have to ham it up a bit.
I’m just wonder about one sentence... it says “the truck carries black suction hose on one side”. Why isn’t there an article in front of “black”... or why isn’t “hose” pluralized?
The Little Fire Engine is a pleasant story but perhaps... a bit flat for the 21st century. Also, Fireman Small is a little too intense for me with those eyebrows that point down (they make him looks like a pervert when taking the little girl down the ladder). I do wonder whether the house, in the story, had fire insurance... or what was the cause of the fire... I bet daddy was smoking!
