The Great Fire

• BIBLIOGRAPHY
  Jim Murphy. 1995. The Great Fire. Scholastic Press. ISBN-10: 0590472674.
  
  
  PLOT SUMMARY
  Jim Murphy’s, The Great Fire (1996 Newbery Medal and Honor Books), is a non-fiction informative narrative which gives insight into the Chicago fire of 1871. The book provides personal accounts, illustrations, maps, research and reflects on four different point of views during one of the greatest catastrophes in U.S. history. Joseph E. Chamberlin, Horace White, Alexander Frear, and Claire Innes, all take part in shaping this historical disaster and bringing the book to life. The story takes us on a journey from the very beginning of the fire, the progression, the human faults and errors throughout, and the end and after-math of the fire. The ending sheds light on the years of blame and condemnation that Catherine O’Leary endured and the deflation of such claims to uncover the real truth: division between the wealthy and the poor. Subsequently, Murphy includes the impactful message that Chicago’s emotional energy and civic spirit were admirable in rebuilding the city.
  
  
  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
  Author, Jim Murphy, provides a grand-scale informational narrative in which the readers have insight into specific details of the great fire of Chicago from beginning to end. The organizational pattern of the book serves as a timeline of events, and helps the reader navigate through this historical calamity that forever marked Chicago’s past. Murphy’s approach to providing the information was through four different perspectives of survivors who experienced the fire and disaster. The four people were of different ages, genders, and backgrounds. This tactic helps the reader experience the fire through different mindsets and different locations of the city. Twelve-year-old Claire tells, “The retreat was now a stampede and were swept along…I felt as a leaf…in a great rushing river…the wind was terrible like a storm, and filled with cinders and fire. I help up my hand to keep from my eyes.” The reader's senses are activated through the vision conveyed in the character’s desperation.
  
  
  The book provides plenty of illustrations, photographs and maps to keep the young readers engaged in the story. A series of six maps are strategically placed to portray the rapid progression of the Chicago fire. Overly dramatized newspaper illustration publications add emotion to the narrative. Murphy deliberately added each carefully researched piece into his historical narrative to give a true representation of the great fire of Chicago.
  
  
  EXCERPTS
  PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: “This volume, beautifully printed in sepia tones, contains historic photos, engravings and newspaper clippings on nearly every page. Especially helpful are maps placed at intervals throughout the book that represent the progress of the fire.” 1995
  
  
  KIRKUS REVIEW: “These characters serve as dramatic focal points as the fire sweeps across the city, their stories illuminated by fascinating archival photographs and maps outlining the spread of fire. Murphy assesses the conflicts between rich and poor that both fueled and followed the conflagration. With his conclusion that the tensions between the haves and the have-nots in large cities continued for decades, eventually culminating in the civil unrest of this century, he puts the incident in perspective, giving it stunning immediacy for contemporary readers.” 2010
  
  
  CONNECTIONS
  Classroom Activity: Students will read The Great Fire and create their own timeline with dates and important events.
  
  
  GT Activity: Students will research on other historical disasters in the United States history and discuss important findings within groups.
  
  
  Library Display: Non-Fiction books written by Jim Murphy.
  ·         Murphy, J. 2006. Blizzard!: The Storm That Changed America. Scholastic Paperbacks. ISBN-10: 0590673106
  
  
  ·         Murphy, J. 2003. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (Newbery Honor Book). Clarion Books. ISBN-10: 0395776082
  
  
  
  
  ·         Murphy, J. 2003. Across America on an Emigrant Train. Clarion Books. ISBN-10: 0395764831.