Fire Book Review: Firefighter Ted

I’m kind of in love with Firefighter Ted by Andrea Beaty and Pascal Lemaitre. It’s not exactly a book that teaches fire safety. In fact, I’m not exactly sure that I want my sons to use what seems to be a canned of whipped cream as a fire extinguisher. But, oh, it makes me laugh. And it makes the boys laugh. And laughter is good.

Basically, we follow Ted through his day as an imaginary firefighter, complete with fire costume. He wakes up in the morning and smells smoke. Now, having just heard a story from a co-worker where her daughter woke up to the smell of smoke and knew enough to feel her door for heat before opening it, I am disappointed that Ted a) waited until he found his firefighter gear, a fire truck and his “fire extinguisher” before going out into the kitchen… all without checking doors. But, it’s okay. It’s really just his breakfast that he smells. The line at the end of the scene made me giggle: “Only you can prevent breakfast fires.”

Oh, Ted.

He then makes his way to school. On the way he saves a cat, two puppies and three… tricycles? He’s late to school, obviously, and somehow manages to tie his principal up in fire tape. Then he leads a parade down the hall, because, of course, firefighters always lead parades. (Though, around here, they always close out the parade. Duh, Ted.)

Eventually, as you might guess, there’s a real fire (of a small size). Firefighter Ted is obviously on the scene in seconds and saves the day. I’m not sure I want my children to be putting out fires at such a young age, but I do want them to know that you should pull a fire alarm if there is a real fire! And, again, the last line of that scene is hysterical. Hysterical. I may start saying it just because.

I’m glad that we added this funny firefighter book to our library. Firefighter Ted is a cute little bear with a vivid imagination. Just like my little firefighters. You can see sample pages at Andrea Beaty’s website.

Come back tomorrow and Thursday for two more fire book reviews. And then come back on Friday for a chance to win all three books! The giveaway will be live for the entire month of October in honor of this week being Fire Prevention Week.