“Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill” by Jamie Harper

I chose this book because it reminded me of a student I work with at a daycare. One morning the fire alarm was being tested and it went off about five times. That morning the child was extremely scared and didn’t understand what was happening or why fire alarms were necessary. This would be a good book to read to students before a fire drill happens, to help them understand the importance of working fire alarms. It describes fire safety in a serious tone, but lightens the mood by having animals as main characters. I liked that each page described what each different animal does when it is frightened or when danger approaches. In the classroom it would be useful to read this book then go over the standard fire drill procedure for the classroom and practice what the students would do. It would be useful to show students the diagram of the fire exit path for their school in relation to the one for Miss Mingo’s class in this book. Overall I think this book would be very useful for teachers to read to their students before reviewing their classroom’s fire drill procedure. Also, it would have been very helpful for the student at the daycare I work at because he would have had a better understanding of what is going on, and the purpose of why we have fire drills.