Product Description
"Vivid firsthand descriptions by persons who lived through the 1871 Chicago fire are woven into a gripping account... Absorbing and riveting reading." The Horn Book, starred review

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 17 reviews)

Huge fire kills thousands! By PJ from North Boulevard

The book I am reviewing is The Great Fire, written by Jim Murphy.
I think this book deserves 4 stars. It's great because it tells about a fire that burned down a town to nothing. Plus it's a true story. This book won a Newberry Honor Award. The problem in this story is that a fire started in a nearby barn. How did the fire finally end? You'll have to read the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes non-fiction books and books about fires.

December 21, 2007

The Great Fire Review

In the book The Great Fire the author gives you a lot of amazing facts, pictures, and he lets you see what is going through four main character's eyes. One of the amazing facts this book gives you is that the people who told the fire engines what place to go, miscalculated it three times, and sent the fire engines in wrong directions. One of the great pictures they give you is a lady on postcard posing as Catherine O'Leary milking the cow that started the fire. This book is a great book for young readers like me. I give The Great Fire by Jim Murphy two thumbs up.
April 16, 2006

The Great Fire book review

I thought that the book, The Great Fire, was good in some ways, and bad in other ways. Some of the bad things were that it was really hard to follow. I thought that it was hard to follow because there were many different story lines going on at the same time, and they switched them around to quickly. I also think that the book was boring because it was basically just about people running from the fire and losing their families. I thought that all of the stories about what happened to people during the fire were basically all the same. Some of the good things about the book were that it was full of facts about the fire. It also told the real story about what happened to people during the fire, what caused the fire, and what helped to stop it. Overall I thought that the book was kind of interesting but hard to follow, and that it was boring, but factual. I didn't think that this was the best book I have ever read, but it wasn't the worst either.
April 09, 2006

The Great Fire

This book is a very interesting book about the fire in Chicago in 1871. It is a journal type book because of its look and feel. It is quick reading because it is such a fascinating tragedy. This book has wonderful photographs and has four peoples points of view and commentaries throughout the book. There is actually a mix of photographs, maps and drawings. They work to enhance the book dramatically and give it a more personal and real touch. It is a Newbery Honor book and is definitely worthy of that title.
This book interested me because I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, Naperville, all during my elementary and Jr. High school years. We were taught about this fire every year for school and Girl Scouts and pretty much everything else I was involved with. In fact there is a song about it that is very catchy and teaches about the fire and has hand movements and the works. Now that I am older and I haven't lived there for a long time it is interesting to go back and refresh my memory about this event and see it from a different perspective.
Jim Murphy has also written many books in a similar fashion including books about the Yellow Fever and Alamo.

May 04, 2005

The Review of a FIRE!!

The Great Fire by Jim Murphy is an expansive look into the fire that destroyed Chicago. It is as enthralling as it is amusing and it's a good read for all levels.

Through a compilation of different people this story unfolds colorfully. This book is based around real accounts of a variety of people. One of the most interesting people of the book is the news reporter, because all of his facts are blatantly wrong. These facts would later be the view of the majority of critics.

Uncovered facts, which were unknown at the time of the fire, make the book sometimes funny. One of the funniest things about the book is that the fire could've been stopped in several instances, but because of human ignorance it was allowed to grow. Also the fact that most of the firefighters had been fighting fires for two days straight didn't help the situation.

This is a must read book for anyone no matter what your special interest are. Jim Murphy does a great job of arranging many people's stories to create a strong picture of The Great Fire.
April 15, 2005

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