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This Newbery Honor Book provides a dramatic and riveting listening experience for all ages as performed by award-winning narrator Taylor Mali. A colossal disaster, the Great Fire of 1871 caused damaged so profound to Chicago that few people believed the city could ever rise again.

Listening to THE GREAT FIRE narrated by Taylor Mali is like watching a History Channel program with one's eyes closed. The personal narratives, eyewitness accounts, and expert opinions that piece together the events of the Chicago fire of 1871 are here but not, unfortunately, the maps and illustrations showing the fire's rapid spread and damage. Award-winning author Jim Murphy meticulously researched the circumstances of one of the worst conflagrations in American history, a disaster that left more than 200,000 people homeless and hundreds dead. Slam poet Mali conveys the terror, rage, and hope reborn experienced by the stunned Chicagoans, making this Audio Bookshelf production one that will burn in memory long after the recording ends. M.M.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

 

"Award-winning author Jim Murphy meticulously researched the circumstances of one of the worst conflagrations in American history...and slam poet Mali conveys the terror, rage and hope reborn experienced by the stunned Chicagoans, making this Audio Bookshelf production one that will burn in memory long after the recording ends."

 

"Vivid details, personal narratives, and interesting facts make Murphy's carefully researched nonfiction books come alive in audio format. Narrator Mali preserves a careful balance between a dignified solemnity befitting calamities that claimed the lives and property of so many and a you-are-there reportorial style that extracts every ounce of narrative tension and blazing drama. Parents will find themselves as enthralled as their children with these stellar audio productions."

 

"This is excellent social history as well as suspenseful storytelling."

 

Author Jim Murphy won the Newbery Honor Book Award for his book The Great Fire. Jim Murphy grew up in New Jersey and became interested in history in middle school. But he felt that most of the books he read as a kid were boring and too full of names and dates, and too empty of action. As a result, he has written over two dozen books, most dealing with American history and has won many honors for his work. See his photo and learn more about how he learned to become a writer at http://www.cbcbooks.org/html/jim_murphy.html