The Great Fire
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Published by: Scholastic Paperbacks
Release Date: October 1, 2006
Pages: 144
ISBN13: 978-0439203074
Overview
1995 ALA Newbery Honor Book
NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book
In October 1871, as Chicago was engulfed in flames, 100,000 people became homeless and a flourishing city built of wood was transformed into a smoldering wasteland. Few believed that the city could ever rise again.
The Great Fire tells the riveting story of one of the greatest disasters in American history by weaving together the personal accounts of survivors — from courageous 12-year-old Clare Innis to reporter Joseph Chamberlin — with contemporary newspaper accounts and extensively researched Chicago history. In the process, Jim Murphy separates fact from legend, and explores the tensions between the haves and the have-nots that both fueled and followed the conflagration.
In clear and captivating prose, Murphy also reveals how the people of Chicago, in the face of despair, found the strength to rebuild and create a new architecture and a new city in the process. Maps illustrate the fire’s progress, while historic photos, engravings and newspaper clippings bring the Chicago of 1871 to life.
Praise and Awards
1995 ALA Newbery Honor Book
NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book
The Jefferson Cup Award
A SLJ Best Book
A Booklist Editors Choice
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
An ALA Notable Book
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
A PW Best Book
“A veritable cinematic account.”
—Kirkus (pointered review)
“Engrossing.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (starred)
“A book that sparks excitement and interest from the cover to the last well-written chapter. Murphy’s text reads like an adventure/survival novel and is just as hard to put down. The diversity and multitude of personal accounts [provide] a better appreciation of the event as a dynamic experience from which we still have much to learn. History writing at its best.”
—School Library Journal (starred)
“The Great Fire will automatically draw readers with its fiery cover and illustrations of disaster, but the text will keep them reading.”
—Booklist (starred)
“The energy and depth of the presentation make this thought-provoking history lesson absorbing and riveting reading.”
—Horn Book (starred)
Excerpt
It was a gusting, swirling wind that drove the flames from the O’Learys’ barn into the neighboring yards. To the east, a fence and shed of James Dalton’s went up in flames; to the west, a barn smoldered for a few minutes, then flared up into a thousand yellow-orange fingers. Dennis Rogan had heard Sullivan’s initial shouts about the fire and returned. He forced open the door to the O’Learys’ house and called for them to wake up.
Moments later, Patrick emerged from the cottage, still half asleep. “Kate!” he screamed the moment he saw what was happening. “The barn is afire!”
Their first action was to get their children out of the house and into the street safely away from the fire. The barn was already engulfed in flames, so Patrick and a group of neighbors began pouring water on the cottage. It would catch fire several times during the night, but the flames would be smothered before they could get out control. Strangely enough, the cottage on the O’Leary property would survive with little damage.
At about this time William Lee, who lived down the block from the O’Learys’, when into his seventeen-month-old’s room to see why the child was crying. After comforting his son, Lee went to fasten the window blind. Outside, he saw a crimson night sky lit up by flames and flying embers. Already some of those embers were landing in his yard and igniting the grass and leaves.
Lee hesitated a moment before shouting to his wife to take care of the baby and rushing out of the house. He ran the three blocks to Bruno Goll’s drugstore, determined to do what no one in the neighborhood had thought about doing; turn in a fire alarm. At this point, the fire was barely fifteen minutes old. What followed was a series of fatal errors that set the fire free and doomed the city to a fiery death.