The story of the John J. Harvey, a fireboat from 1931 that by the 1990s is only good for scrap. A group of friends repair the boat, with no idea that it can ever be useful again. On September 11, 2001, the Harvey comes to the rescue when water lines around the twin towers are collapsed.

Commissioned in 1931, the John J. Harvey was the sleekest and fastest fireboat of its day, racing around New York City to put out fires. After many years of service it was retired, and was due to be scrapped when a group of friends purchased it, refurbished it, and had it declared a historical landmark. No one expected that it would ever be used to fight fires again. Then, on September 11th, 2001, New York City was attacked and the water pipes around the Twin Towers were damaged. Suddenly the John J. Harvey was needed again...

Beautifully written and illustrated, Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey had me tearing up on more than one occasion. I was already familiar with the amazing story of the many boats that came to the aid of the people trapped in lower Manhattan on that day, ferrying over 500,000 people to safer locations in New Jersey, Connecticut and elsewhere in New York state in the largest maritime rescue in history. My mother was on one of those boats, and ended up in New Jersey. There's a powerful documentary about it, BOATLIFT - An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience, that I recommend. That said, the story of the John J. Harvey was unknown to me, and I am glad to have learnt about it through author/illustrator Maira Kalman's wonderful book. The text was understated but emotionally resonant, the artwork powerful. Recommended to those seeking children's books about 9/11, and about the resilience of the human spirit. ( )

This book is absolutely beautiful. Kalman does a wonderful job of telling the story of Harvey and also September 11 in completely kid friendly word and pictures. I would recommend this book to any K-5 teacher to use around the anniversary of 9/11.

This is a historical fiction novel about the John J. Harvey fireboat. It begins by talking about all the amazing things that were happening in New York during 1931, one of those including the launching of the John J. Harvey fireboat. This boat was something special, of the 12 fireboats in New York City it was the best. During its time the boat travelled around the river putting out on fire at a time. However, over time the Harvey began to be considered useless so for five years it sat next to the pier waiting to be sold. One group of friends came up with a brilliant idea to redo and save the Harvey. Many people doubted the Harvey's ability to be used to put out fires. Then one day airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers. On that day the Harvey was used as a main source for water (many pipes had bursted in the attack). For four days they fought the fires of the 9/11 attacks. The John J. Harvey was a hero and received many awards for it's heroism. ( )

36 months - We quite enjoyed this book and read it a few times. Picture books based on real events always have a nice depth of story and emotion as well as a good learning opportunity to discuss what happened. In this case we didn't do that as 3 yrs seems a bit young to explain the horrors of 9/11 especially with a child still grieving the loss of a dog and two cats who asks "If we get another pet will it die?". Nope not at all ready to explain this insanity. ( )