Bowen, Carl. Bone Yard. (Firestormers.)

Bowen, Carl. Bone Yard.  (Firestormers.)  Capstone Publishers  2017  112p  $25.99  ISBN 978-1-4965-3306-7  elem/ms  Adventure  VG                                

Upper-level-elementary and middle-school students who enjoy learning about natural disasters will appreciate this new title in the Firestormers series.  Written in an easy-to-comprehend manner, students meet Sergeant Amalia Rendon and the rest of her Firestormers, an elite firefighting crew who are battling a tremendous wildfire in Denali National Park in Alaska.  With over twenty thousand acres of wilderness to worry about, the Firestormers are facing a huge undertaking.  While most of the wildfires are uncomplicated and can be contained, Sergeant Rendon and her team realize that there’s a small village in the path of the wildfire.  As eleven thousand acres of wildfire are approaching it, Sergeant Rendon is desperate to get the people in the village to leave their land so that they will be safe.  The houses and people live very modestly, without any form of electricity and with only basic necessities found on the land.  When the people from the village don’t want to move, Sergeant Rendon takes them to the fire scene and shows them what is coming.  After seeing the blaze for themselves, the village people decide it is best to relocate after all.  Students will cheer for the Firestormers as they try to save the homes from destruction.

The author includes a glossary of terms, firefighting equipment, and wildfire facts.

As of this review, four titles have been published in this new series.  Each title features the elite crew of heroes battling wildfires.

Wildfires have increased in number, size, and severity, and only the Firestormers are equipped to take on these immense infernos.  "When they are assigned to create a fire break to contain a wildfire burning near Denali National Park in Alaska, Amalia Rendon's crew of elite Firestormers runs into a problem--a small village of stubborn people living off the land who do not want to leave their homes and are too ready to dismiss the danger to their lives.”  This book would make a good addition to an elementary or middle-school collection for casual reading. 

           

Wildfires-Fiction, Denali National Park and Reserve-Fiction         --Charleen Forba-MacCain   

Bowen, Carl. Elite Firefighting Crew. (Firestormers.)

Bowen, Carl.  Elite Firefighting Crew.   (Firestormers.)  Capstone Publishers  2016  223p  $8.95  ISBN 978-1-62370-756-9  ms  Conflict  E-BN            

This is an exciting action story with elite firefighters and two or more story threads.  It is a compilation of at least two shorter titles in the Firestormers series.  One involves the story of Sgt. Rendon, a female crew chief who needs to convince a group of people to leave their homes for safety.  A second major thread is the rescue of Sgt. Rodger’s brother and his crew.  These two story threads are printed in the separate titles of Bone Yard and Hot Spot.  The story lines about Lt. Garrett and Chief MacElreath may also have been published in the smaller editions.  The various story lines alternate through the chapters.
 

The story is exciting and includes lots of danger, firefighting strategies, and descriptions of equipment.  Middle-school readers will love this title.        

Summary: Fighting a wildfire in Klamath National Forest, one crew chief must convince a group of people to leave their home in the face of the fire.  Another team must perform a search-and-rescue mission for a missing crew of local firefighters.  Grades 4-8.

Fire-fighting-Fiction                                                                                                    --Joan Theal