cover image Firemouse

Firemouse

Nina Barbaresi. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, $12.95 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-375-82294-0

New York's Bravest are the models for Firemouse by Nina Barbaresi, first issued in 1987. Mack, the titular mouse, moves into his neighborhood firehouse after his own is destroyed in a blaze. There, he and a group of mice start their own squad the Brooklyn Blazers and fight their first fire. As Barbaresi explains in her dedication, the work was guided by the men of Brooklyn's Squad 1, many of whom died on September 11, 2001.