Review: Nicky's Fire -- 5 star

Nicky’s Fire is a book written for younger readers but I found it very poignant as a father.  Nicky’s dad is a firefighter who is working a second job to help his family survive and thrive.  What is not so apparent at first is that these two jobs take him away from being there for Nicky, including being his baseball tutor. This situation comes to head when Nicky’s class gets assigned a project to do a project about their parent’s careers.  Different students have their parents come as a “show-and-tell” prop in addition to the written and oral student report. After some trepidation, Nicky asks his dad if he can go to work with him and observe, first-hand, what he does.  After some back and forth, Nicky does get to go to the firehouse and discover a totally different side of his very staid father when he is with his firefighter brothers.  The other firefighters adopt Nicky into the “brotherhood” and that elevates them and also his dad in Nicky’s mind.  A broader definition of family is developing in the reader’s mind as these folks interact for the common good.

The firehouse totally accepts Nicky and helps him broaden his prospective of his dad’s work life. The interactions of father and son are heart-warming and mirror what many a similar interaction has experienced.  A fire training academy, a dangerous fire the engine company fights, and a real-life fire experience with Nicky rounds out some of the interactions.  Similar interactions between other children and their dads are peripheral to the main story, but serve to show that Nicky’s experiences are not unique.

Ultimately the dad has a different kind of father-son talk and each of them develops a new perspective that the reader feels in a visceral way.  Soon money is not the only thing that is important but also relationships, parental love, family responsibility, and other feel-good interactions are explored. 

The book is a great read for kids and parents but maybe particularly for dads and sons.  Would be great to read together and have this discussion between the two parties.  There might be some angst and parts of story will be hard for both parent (dad) and child (son).  While this is focused mainly on male-bonding, it is a broader story that has applicability for various parental/child groupings.  Definitely a thumbs up for reading.