Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 1-3. Focusing on events in one location, this handsome volume presents the cycle of forest fires in words and pictures. On a hot day in a dry season, a lightning bolt strikes a tree, and soon a fire rages throughout the forest before dying out. Eventually seeds germinate, plants sprout, trees shoot up again, and animals return to the new forest, which grows up to resemble its predecessor. Years later, there comes another hot day in a dry season. Each double-page spread includes a broad, horizontal forest scene and a small circular picture of particular plants or animals tinted with watercolors. The larger illustrations are richly colored, surprisingly varied, and often handsome compositions showing the forest in various stages of its cycle. One double-page spread at the end of the book effectively contrasts the stages by showing old forest, a fire, charred remains, and new forest within one broad, mountainous landscape. An appended map of Canada and the U.S. indicates the area where fires occur as well as the regions that are too hot or dry for forests or too wet for forest fires. Clear, concise writing and vivid artwork make this a fine presentation on the subject. --Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-Godkin provides a basic introduction to the role of fire in forest ecology. She describes the conditions that lead up to the blaze that begins during a thunderstorm. Animals flee but return shortly after rain extinguishes the flames. Plants emerge from blackened soil to start a new forest cycle. The author identifies various animals and plants in small inset illustrations that appear on each spread. In many cases, viewers can spot these same animals or plants in the larger panorama, but sometimes the smaller illustrations provide a close-up view of something that can't otherwise be seen. The book concludes with two-page views of a wilderness forest landscape in various stages of growth and a detailed explanation of how various animals and plants contribute to forest recovery after a fire. Although the story stands alone for the youngest readers, older students will appreciate the additional information.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Using insets to identify the wildlife in her well-populated woodland scenes, Godkin portrays a North American boreal forest's destruction and recovery from a fire caused by lightning. Though that recovery comes on with deceptive quickness--from charred wasteland to verdant meadow in two turns of the page, and back to thick stands of tall trees in two more--the various stages, as well as the affected flora and fauna, are rendered with decent accuracy, and recapped for reinforcement on closing spreads. A good choice for collections needing a replacement or supplement for the likes of Laurence P. Pringle's Fire in the Forest: A Cycle of Growth and Renewal (1995). (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
