The Gingerbread Man Loose on the Fire Truck

The indefatigable star of The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School (rev. 9/11) here joins his class on a field trip to the fire station. While the kids are meeting the firefighters and testing out their gear, the Gingerbread Man is busy evading Spot the Dalmatian. After a chase through the station, the ambulatory cookie leaps onto a departing fire truck, off to battle a blaze: "I'll ride to the rescue, as fast as I can. / I want to help, too! I'm the Gingerbread Man!" And help he does, aiming the hose nozzle at a burning shed and holding on for dear life until the fire is out, his bravery earning the praise of Fire Chief Anne. Bouncy rhymes incorporate some fire-fighting terms: "dispatcher" rhyming with "hungry crumb-snatcher" (i.e., Spot), for example. The cookie's self-guided tour allows readers to see the ins and outs of a fire station, including the firefighters' bunks, their shiny sliding pole, and their kitchen, with "five-alarm chili" bubbling away on the stove. One useful page shows a firefighter in uniform with all the gear labeled -- boots, gloves, goggles, oxygen tank, etc. Lowery's cartoony illustrations, varying among panels, full pages, and double-page spreads, help set the story's pace and establish a not-scary tone: it's clear that no cookies were burnt in the making of this book. elissa gershowitz