Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey

By: Maira Kalman

 “Fireboat does many things. It sets forth an adventure, helps commemorate an anniversary, offers an interesting bit of history, celebrates the underdog, and honors the fire-fighting profession. Children and adults will respond to it in as many ways.” Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library

In 1995 The John J. Harvey fireboat was considered a useless scrap heap after once being considered the largest, fastest, shiniest fireboat of its time. A group of friends decided to save the boat and fix it up. Then on September 11th 2001 the twin towers were struck by planes causing tragic destruction and sadness. When the firemen arrived they realized that the water pipes were broken and buried so that no water could be pumped to put the horrible fires out. That’s when The John J. Harvey fireboat was called to come and fight the fires. After 4 days and nights the fireboat pumped water to fight the fire. The people of the fireboat felt so proud to help and the The John J. Harvey fireboat received the National Preservation Award on October 18th 2001. This inspiring true story brings New York and its heroes to life. The Illustrations are so vibrant and brilliantly captivate the reader.   

While this book is noted to be for younger students, the content is specific enough that older students can take appreciation for the information about the John J. Harvey fireboat. learning about 911 and the twin towers is something important that students need to know about. This would be a great story to read to them that they are sure to enjoy.

Publisher: Puffin Copyright: 2002

Reading Level: 2-3rd Lexile: AD280L 
Ages: 7-11

Suggested delivery: Read aloud

Vocabulary: Fireboat, The Empire State Building, Babe Ruth, George Washington Bridge, suspended, elegantly, Hudson River, Westminster Kennel Club, Diesel, bustling, The Twin Towers, 911, plucky.

 Electronic Resources:

http://www.mairakalman.com/books/c_books/fireboat-01.html The author’s website offers information about the book and the author.

http://www.fireboat.org/ This website is about the actual fireboat. This is a great website for more background about the boat and actual pictures, facts and information about where the boat will be if the students wanted to go see it in person.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/us-history/lesson-plan/15431.html good resource for teachers on how to incorporate this book into the classroom.

Activities to increase comprehension:

Before reading: Have the students learn about 911 and the twin towers before reading this book. They will need some background knowledge about what happened and why this was such a tragic day. Some of the vocabulary should be gone over before they read. Students that aren’t from the New York area might need to be taught about specific structures mentioned such as the George Washington Bridge. An anticipation guide would be a really great way to get the students thinking about the content of the book as well as what they already know. The emphasis is not on right answers but to share what they know and to make predictions.

During reading: There are some pages in this book where the text and picture are not in a linear format and the words almost act as captions for the picture that are with them, when reading this book aloud to the class make sure to connect the text with the picture to reduce the confusion some students may have. On one page they talk about the parts of the boat and then have picture of each part, after you read about one part point to that picture so the students can see which picture you are reading about.

After reading: I think that an exit slip would be a good way to see what the students got out of the book, whether they learned something new, had a strong emotion to the content or were confused. Another great after reading activity would be to show the students the website of the John J. Harvey fireboat so they can get a better idea of what the boat is and to get them to actually see that the boat is real and that it really made a difference on 911. 

The first page of the book.

The last page of the book.