Fire Truck: A Caldecott Honor Picture Book About Transformation and Rescue for Kids

by Peter Sís

Matt loves fire trucks, and one morning when he wakes up, he is a fire truck--right down to his hoses, hooks, and ladders! His wheels and sirens couldn't be handier for performing many important duties around the house, especially rescuing teetering teddy bears or precariously placed pets. And a gatefold spread of Matt's fully loaded rig will have happy young viewers counting from one to ten--over and over again--in this fun-filled ode to the classic red fire truck by Caldecott Honor-winning Peter Sis.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Storytime, Fiction, Firefighters, Trucks, Transport

28 pages, Hardcover

First published September 17, 1998

About the author

PETER SÍS is an internationally acclaimed illustrator, filmmaker, painter and author. Born in 1949 in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and grew up in Prague. He studied painting and filmmaking at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Art in London. His animated work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He came to America in 1982, and now lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his family. Peter Sís is the first children's book artist to be named a MacArthur Fellow. In 2012 he won The Hans Christian Andersen Award.

His many distinguished books include Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei, Tibet: Through the Red Box, Madlenka, Rainbow Rhino, The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, and The Conference of the Birds.

Reviews

[S]

ALL IS FIRE TRUCK

FIRE TRUCK IS ALL

Add, ye, all the parts thereupon and BEHOLD:

FIRE TRUCK

Peace be upon you.

Also, maple syrup.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

For all the talk about this book depicting a boy’s very active imagination, this story fails to portray his transformation into the fire truck in an imaginatively believable way, largely because of the ludicrous illustrations. If the boy has actually become the fire truck, then why does it have two faces? Why is the boy driving the truck from the rear? Shouldn’t he be sitting in the cab? For that matter, why is he driving the truck at all? Then there’s the ontological problem of the hose; it’s coming out of what would ostensibly be the boy’s rear end, which means that he is putting out the fire with. . .well, you get the picture, which speaks for itself.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie, this book is a little weird. There's not too much of a story, and I think sometimes the fact that Matt is imagining that he's a fire truck goes over the kids' heads. However, it's got a nice counting page and a fold-out spread. It's also one of the shorter books about firetrucks I've found, which is sometimes what I need for a big group storytime.

[Mary Peble · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange premise, in my opinion. (Suddenly the boy turns into a fire truck? What?)
The pictures are appealing to young children because of their bright simplicity. My son especially enjoys the big fold-out page.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for a Touch the Truck event or a Meet the Firefighter day.
It does have a counting page where you have to find the things and verify the counts (3 hoses, 6 wheels, 10 boots, etc.).
But, it's mostly for kids who love fire trucks.

[Maeve · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little boy named Matt loves firetrucks. He loves them so much that one morning, he wakes up as a firetruck and spends the day racing around saving teddy bears.

Kind of a weird concept. I will look for other books to use for a storytime on firefighters.

[SBC · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting. It is debatable whether the boy actually changes into a firetruck or, more likely, just imagines he is one for the morning (as he then eats his breakfast and is a boy at the end).

[kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

cute, but not into the illustrations

[Elena Maddox · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little boy likes fire trucks so much he turns into one. Good for babies. A little odd.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little weird that he transforms into the firetruck...even if only in his imagination.

[Milton Louie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little boy's imagination. B

[Tiff · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute, love the book. Simple yet so awesome. Great for storytime.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matt loves fire trucks so much that one day he wakes up and he IS a fire truck.

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adorable story - so many young children pretend to be fire fighters, being the fire truck would be fun too.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clever book about a boy who lives and breathes fire trucks, so much that he turns into one (temporarily).

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute! Our son liked this book. When the fire truck “rescued a teddy bear”, he ran in search of his own teddy bear to rescue (he got it!)

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pancakes lure Matt away from his beloved firetruck.

[Heather Talbot · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not recommend this book, for any age. It’s poorly written. It went right in the donation bin.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a sucker for any picture book where children turn into inanimate objects

[Ashten Wolff]

The little boy becomes a fire truck.

[Souaad Asar · Rating 4 out of 5]

FIRE TRUCK by Sis, Peter. The book is an imaginative story is about a boy names Matt, who loves fire trucks, wakes up one morning to find that he has become a fire truck, with one driver, two ladders, three hoses, and ten boots. The little boy has a great imagination; he puts out a fire, saved a cat, teddy bear and lots of pretend action as a fire truck. This was one of my son’s favorite books when he was two/ three year old. He was extremely crazy about cars, all kind of trucks so it was very easy to relate to. In addition to being able to use his imagination; I also like the fact that counting in incorporated into the story. The concept of book has a great story, easy to understand and to memorize. The artwork is excellent and colorful has a count and learn feature. It is just wonderful for little ones particularly little boys.

[Amber McFarland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not think this was really that great of a book. The story doesn't really go anywhere, it just ends out of no where. The story is about a little boy named Matt who loved fire trucks. He loved them so much that one day he turned into one. He saved a cat, put out a fire, raced down the street, and saved a teddy bear. Then he smelled pancakes and ate them for breakfast and the story ended. To me the ending was confusing but now it's understandable that the story is suitable for ages 1-4. The illustrations were very dull, everything was mostly black and white except for all things related to a fire truck were red and yellow. The cover of the book was boarded with fire trucks which I though was cute. The book is in landscape orientation which helps the illustrations connect together. According to the copyright page, gouache paint was used for this book.

[Alexus Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now talk about a taste of imagination. Every little kid dreams of either being something or when their older becoming something they really enjoy doing. This little boy named Matt loves fire trucks and loves to hear or see anything about them. One day he magically sprouts into a fire truck, saving things such as the neighborhood cat and a teddy bear. I think this book demonstrates courage and bravery because he goes around saving everything he can because of his obsession with fire trucks. This book is very entertaining and I would really like to even share this with my own kids one day.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This board book has a lot going for it. The illustrations are bright primary colors with thick black lines that offers high-contrast images for an infant's developing eyes. It introduces number counting and uses common objects to do so. The images could easily lend itself to ask older babies directions and prepositions. (The pancakes are ON the table. The fire truck is UNDER the table.) Babies love to see themselves and Matt is a pretty unique baby because - spoiler alert everyone- he becomes the fire truck! Overall the fun and creativity is well done for the under 1 crowd.

[Drew Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matt really likes fire trucks. A LOT. Like, so much that he may or may not take on certain physical characteristics of them.

So I'm a little torn about this book because it's kind of funny and has a fun and different illustration style, and of course our in-house fire truck expert (2.75) really likes it (he occasionally asks for "the Matt book"), but the story is so odd and the ending is so sudden it just makes me scratch my head. I guess the moral is that no matter what, kids are kids, which is actually pretty relevant these days.

[Jack Kirby and the X-man · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple story designed for the single-minded young child. If everything revolves around fire trucks - then this is the story for you. If you are indifferent about fire trucks then maybe look elsewhere.

X-man is up to planes, buses and trucks - but has yet to really categorise within trucks. I'm sure it will come. He may also be confused because our fire trucks are all fluro yellow, rather than the traditional red (also ladder trucks are pretty rare in the suburbs...)

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love sharing this board book by the brilliant Peter Sis with youngsters attending story time. The boy in the story loves fire trucks so much that one morning he transforms into a fire truck! Children love "turning on their sirens" and "racing"(patting their legs while remaining seated or have them stand up and run in place), "rescuing"(pretend to climb a ladder), "putting out fires" (pretend to aim a fire hose), and "saving a teddy bear" (pretend to catch).

[Chak · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to my son, this is one of the great masterpieces of Western Literature and he is currently writing his dissertation on it.

If your kid likes Fire Trucks and is in the 1-4 years old range, this is a must-have! It is very short, incredibly simple and does encourage early counting.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well as a grandmotherly person, I thought this book a bit strange buy my dgs loved loved loved reading it and saying the words that were coming and counting the firetruck's equipment. It's a very short fast book but it was a sad day in this house today when I had to return it to the library!

[B · Rating 2 out of 5]

L: 4 stars. me: 2 stars.
we are a house of firetruck lovers but this book and its (strangely drawn) boy-halfway-morphing-into-truck illustrations are just plain odd to me.
L thinks any books that mentions both firetrucks and pancakes deserves 4 stars though... so we are a mixed review : )