title: Spark the Firefighter
author:  Stephen Krensky 
description: PreSchool-Grade 1Spark is a dragon who's afraid of fire. To help overcome his fear of blowing flames, he decides to become a volunteer fireman. The other firefighters put him through a rigorous training, including push-ups, sit-ups, a lot of reading about fire injuries, school demonstrations, and learning how to use the equipment. Then he is ready to go on real jobs. Gradually he becomes brave, and then a hero when he uses his special dragon attributes to lead animals out of a burning barn. Now over his fear, Spark leaves the fire department and begins to explore traditional dragon duties like protecting treasure, returning to his old job every once in a while to teach recruits. Simply told with bright cartoon pictures and a dragon to hold interest, the slight story teaches fire safety in an appealing way. It also contains a subtle lesson on facing and overcoming one's fears.<i>Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  The Fire Inside By Julia Talbot
  
  Chapter One
  
  Goddamn it, Nick hated it when he was out on a job and it started fucking
  raining. All that moisture made the roads slick as snot, all of the oil and
  grit beading up like little pond scum monsters, out to get his ass. The car
  slid around the corner and into the alley like a first baseman sliding into
  third, all steam with a lot of weight behind it.
  
  
  The tinted window slid down at the barest touch of his finger, and Nick
  checked his target. Fucking perfect. All he had to do was pull the trigger.
  The target was in plain sight, and nothing blocked his aim. With any luck,
  everyone would think the guy was just a victim of a gang bang drive by.
  
  Just as he took a deep breath and let half of it out, his finger starting to
  squeeze the trigger, something hit the hood of his car. Hard.
  
  “Shit!”
  
  Nick stared through the rain-dappled windshield, right into scared eyes
  staring back at him.
  
  “Help me, please?” the kid shouted, banging 