This book tells what happens to all of the organisms in a forest when it catches fire, including the plants and animals. It gives this information in the form of a story of a particular forest, with a more informational section at the back telling about the cycles forests go through related to fires. The text is accompanied by illustrations and side pictures with captions giving the names of various organisms. This book could be used as an example when teaching about earth's cycles, or perhaps ecosystems. Students could follow a particular organism and tell about how it was affected at each stage of the forest fire and regrowth. ( )

This is a fantastic book about forest fires. The illustrations are beautiful and provide circles with more detailed drawings with labels. It starts from an old forest and clearing with abundant plant and animal life, details how lighting causes forest fires, how the fire runs its course, and how plant and animal life returns to the forest. I like this book because the format of the book lends itself well to a read-aloud. It is written like a story of a forest with information about it. The author’s note contains more information about the importance of forest fires. In the back of the book, there are two pages filled with information about the view of a wilderness forest and a page about how life returns to a forest after a fire. I would use this book as a read aloud to teach about environmental science. I could link it to biodiversity or prey-predator relationships as well. ( )

This book explores what happens to a forrest when a fire happens. Talking with students about regeneration of a ecosystem and natural disasters, specifically fires, would be good to pair with this book.

This is a wonderful factional book that is written stylistically as a narrative of the life of how a fire affects the life cycle of a forest. I also really appreciated that this book introduced fire as a non scary subject. I would use this book in a third grade unit study on weather. ( )

This is an informational book to teach us that when lightening starts a forest fire it is completely normal and that it ends up helping the forest in the end.

Fire! The Renewal of a Forest bills itself as "an informational storybook" on the cover and I'd say that's just about the perfect description for this book. Aimed at kids from ages 4-8, the reader is taken on a brief journey from old forest growth (and what that entails); the cycle of life in the forest (trees and animals); what weather conditions have to be present for a fire to occur (dry & lightening); how the fire moves and spreads as well as what are some natural barriers to continued spread; and the cycle of re-growth and return of wildlife after the fire. Each page set contains a bit of text that explains fully the cycle from start to finish in simple (well written and easy to understand) language. Rather than having something different going on each page, the author gives a two page spread so the reader gets a full length panoramic spread of the forest with inset bubbles that showcase animals, conditions, and/or plants...kind of spotlighting specific parts of the forest and brining additional information to the reader to add to the text on the page. The illustrations are stunning and do a good job in evoking the feel of they type of forest (old growth, new growth, newly burned) in the text and there is even a two page spread at the end that illustrates the entire cyclical process which is very well done. At the end there is a short list of additional web resources for students and teachers to use in finding out more about forest fires (which my kiddies particularly liked).

Overall, this is an excellent start for young readers in understanding how and why forest fires (the natural variety) start, why they are necessary and even healthy for the forest and animals while down playing the threat to homes and people...there is the briefest mention of "most animals escaping" and of homes needing to be protected from forest fires or fires stared by people (only one mention in the entire book). The author stresses forest fires as a natural and necessary occurrence in a way that is very non-frightening to young readers. The artwork for the book is a perfect match to the text and was visually interesting from page to page with surprisingly little repetition. It was also nice that the inset bubbles echoed animals and plants in the larger panoramic double page view, this made for something extra the kids could look for and talk about while we read the book. I give it five stars, it's well done and an excellent book for readers ages 4-8, this would make a fine classroom book particularly in areas where forest fires are a yearly (or nearly yearly) occurrence. ( )