22. Liams Watch (A strange story of the great chicago fire)

22. Liams Watch

Author: Pamela Dell

Tradition Book Publishing, 2003

47 pages
Historical Fiction

         I chose this book while I was in the library because the librarian had just got a whole new shipment of books in and this book was a historical fiction book. The story is about a male named Liam who was woken early in the night when the Chicago fires broke out. The boy wakes his family up, but his family does not heed his warning and then is caught at the last minute trying to escape the fires. The story describes the mystery behind the supposed fireproof buildings collapsing and the safes exploding, but one artifact was spared.

         The illustrations in this book are beautiful. The text surrounds the pictures on the edges. Some of the illustrations are done across the entire spread of both pages while others are only on one side or the other. The illustrations are photographs  that have been inserted into the pages surrounded by true facts about each picture. Some of the illustrations are done with very fine lines that are sketched using pencils and colors from the warm end of the spectrum.

         This book would be a great book to use in the classroom for a Social Studies lesson. The book introduces the topic of the Chicago fires and could lead into a lesson about the events surrounding the fires. In a language arts lesson this book could provide the opportunity for students to write about how they would respond to the fires or how they would warn their family and friends if they were Liam. This is one of my favorite genres to read because I enjoy reading about past events that affected history. This book does not have any awards or honors.