Out of the Fires: A Journal of Resilience and Recovery after Disaster

by Carrie Lara, Colleen Larmour (Illustrator)

Overview

Let me tell you about that one day everything was there, and then there was nothing.

After a fire destroys his home and neighborhood, a young boy must learn what it means to be resilient and to recover. Things may never be "normal" again, but he discovers that he is strong—even when hard things happen. This inspiring journal is filled with drawings, news clippings, and coping strategies to help children cultivate resilience after a natural disaster. Includes end matter on the topic of building resilience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433840692
Publisher:	Magination Press, American Psychological Association
Publication date:	07/04/2023
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	9 - 10 Years

About the Author

Carrie Lara, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist who has worked with a range of clients, from children and families to adults with severe mental illness. She is also an award-winning children’s book author.

Editorial Reviews

2023-05-09
The aftermath of a natural disaster becomes an educational narrative.

Narrated by a boy coming back to school following a wildfire that canceled classes for two weeks, this book is intended to help young people grappling with similar events. The first section deals with the return to school in paragraphs broken up by related, colored pencil–esque images. The boy learns strategies for dealing with trauma (writing, drawing, taking deep breaths). It’s not until the second section that readers discover exactly what happened, though the author’s introduction details the 2017 California wildfires that inspired the book. This section describes the fire and the boy and his family’s evacuation, giving readers a child’s-eye view that, amid the chaos, grounds itself in people’s kindness. The narrator’s reaction to the fire evolves over time; sometimes he feels angry, other times sad and lost. Moments of frustration are conveyed, too: “My emotions exploded,” he says, alongside an image of a mushroom cloud. However, seeing his friends again makes him feel happy; the child’s emotional journey will reassure both young people and adults. Interspersed news clippings describe what is happening in the community at large, though the narrator mostly focuses on his personal journey. At the end, however, he discusses worldwide disasters, and he and his classmates send encouraging messages to kids in Australia, where wildfires also raged.

An important guide to finding strength after trauma for children and guardians alike. (resiliency and coping worksheet, additional resources) (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews