Finding Fire by Logan S Kline

"Long before the secrets of fire had been discovered, people had to find fire. And if they lost it ... if it went out ... 

someone would need to search for more."

Blurb: After a hard rain douses the family fire, a brave young boy sets out to search for more fire to bring home before the cold season sets in. Along the way, he’ll face many challenges, from perilous mountains to fearsome predators to raging rivers, and find something wholly unexpected: a friend.

This is a debut picture book for Logan S Kline.

This book could be in your local or school library. Plan to read this book slowly and more than once and make sure you spend time with the title page and prologue.

Library displays are an essential way to circulate the books in your library - surely your goal is to get books into the hands of the kids and not have them languish on your shelves. In the library where I work as a volunteer, the Teacher-Librarian regularly changes her displays and she also fills two under shelf tubs with books specifically designed to appeal to her youngest students aged 3 and 4 (preschool). At the end of last term she set out all her books about rocks and rock related topics like cave people, crystals, and mammoths. This week we packed up those books ready to set out the next topic Halloween but instead of shelving the 'rock books' she decided to pop them into her preschool tubs. Among them I spied Finding Fire. This is a brilliant wordless book that explores, as the title suggests, the need for fire with a prehistoric setting. 

Watch the trailer - it is terrific! Read this interview with Logan S Kline where he talks in depth about his illustration process. 

Rugged, sparse mountains and outcroppings, white-capped rivers, weather, and saber-toothed predators all present varied challenges for the child in the lush, earth-toned illustrations, rendered in graphite, ink, oil paint, and digital techniques. ...  This is a simple but heartwarming story told through a well-balanced variety of panels and full double spreads. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A prehistoric premise best enjoyed cozied up next to a warm, safe fireplace. Kirkus

This tiny but valiant adventure is visually precise enough for lap-sitters and artistically sophisticated enough for primary grade prehistory fans. . . . This will make a good wind-down choice at bedtime or perhaps a candlelit saga to while away a power outage.

—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Logan S Kline cites a few titles in the interview above including the illustrators Chris van Allsburg and David Weisner:

Aaron Becker