This post is part of a weekly series of synopses of children’s books, written by First Book staff members.

Big Frank’s Fire Truck, by Leslie McGuire, illustrated by Joe Mathieu. Spend the day with Frank the firefighter as he goes to the station, responds to a traffic accident, inspects the sprinklers at a supermarket, teaches fire safety at an elementary school, and puts out a large brush fire. Grades K-2.


MoonWalk, by Judy Donnelly, illustrated by Dennis Davidson. What would it be like to travel to the moon? Would you be scared? For centuries, human beings didn’t know what the moon was. Some people even thought it was made of cheese! But in 1969, three brave men risked their lives to go to the moon and find out the truth. Read all about the training they went through and the danger they faced at every step along this journey. Grades 3-4.


City of Ember, by Jeanne Duprau. The city of Ember is dying. The lights that had kept the city out of perpetual darkness are flickering and the storerooms are frightfully bare. Lina and Doon, two adventurous twelve-year olds want to do something about it. They set out to solve the mystery of their city and hopefully save it at the same time. Grades 5-6.