Firefighter Ted by Andrea Beaty and Pascal Lemaitre
Rating: 3.5 stars
Anything with a firefighter or fire truck on it generates mass excitement in our house from "the Little Guy," as we often call Ben. He still doesn't have many words in his vocabulary, but "WEE AHH WEE AHH WEE AHH!" means (obviously!) firefighter. Or fire truck. Even Lorelei easily comprehends this; this morning I asked Ben what shirt he wanted to wear. He responded with: "WEE AHH WEE AHH WEE AHH!" Lorelei interpreted: "He wants to wear his fireman shirt." I just hope that pretty soon he's able to say "fireman shirt" so the rest of the world doesn't have to become fluent in Ben-speak.
So we like Firefighter Ted. Ted is a little bear who smells smoke after waking up, and since he can't find a firefighter to fight what is (obviously!) a fire, he becomes one. He finds a truck and fire extinguisher and puts out the fire (his toast). He goes to school and solves various dangerous, usually hot problems in funny ways. For example, a kitten and two puppies and two tricycles are on super hot asphalt, with their toes steaming. So he puts them in a tree. "No need to thank me!" Ted says to the curious onlookers as he skips his way to school.
I don't love the book because of Ted's run-in with the principal, Mr. Bigham (he's a warthog, chuckle chuckle). Mr. Bigham tells him he's late for class while standing in front of the fire alarm, so Ted ties up Mr. Bigham with caution tape and squirts his fire extinguisher at him. I don't think this is funny, and I really don't think it's funny when Lorelei and Ben laugh at it. I'm from the old school line of thinking, where disrespect for those in authority (or any adult at all) was met with punishment, usually just a glaring I'm-disappointed-in-you look.
But we'll check out Doctor Ted because it's not THAT bad, and Ted does mean well. And he does rescue Mr. Bigham in the end when the principal's pants catch on fire. "Only you prevent pants fires," Lorelei now reminds me. Good to know!
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