Dumpy and the Firefighters

by Julie Andrews Edwards, Emma Walton Hamilton, Tony Walton (Illustrator)

Dumpy the Dump Truck and his friends Charlie and Pop–Up are helping to prepare for Farmer Barnes's New Year's Open House, but when a fire alarm sounds, their help is needed elsewhere! Dumpy and his friends join the firefighting team to help put out the fire at Pharoah's General Store. Will Dumpy and the crew be able to save the day? Ages 3 – 7

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Dame Julie Elizabeth Andrews Edwards, DBE is an award-winning English actress, singer, author and cultural icon. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honours. Andrews rose to prominence after starring in Broadway musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot, as well as musical films like Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965).

Reviews

[Fred Kohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the Dumpy books I’ve read to date, *Dumpy and the Firefighters* has the most involved plot. It starts with many people skating on the frozen pond at Farmer Barnes' New Year's Day Open House. Dumpy figures heavily in this as he has plowed the snow into a big hill, clearing the way for the skaters and in the process creating a sledding hill. Everybody is having a great time when suddenly the fire alarm sounds. This is the cue for everyone to run into town to either watch or help out with the fire.

All is not going well as the water the firefighters freezes on the pavement and the firefighters cannot get a purchase on the wet ice. Getting salt to the site would take too long. Pop-up, Charlie Barnes's grandpa points out that sand would work as well. Dumpy is the hero again as he hauls sand to the site of the fire and spreads it on the pavement. The firefighters put out the fire and then there is a celebration.

There are 2 new animated vehicles in this book: Big Red the Fire Engine, and Polly the Police Car. Tony Walton deserves a shout out for his illustration of these vehicles and the huge crowd of people in this book. This is a contrast with *Dumpy's Friends on the Farm* where there are no people except for Pop-up who is driving Dumpy. There are no other vehicles in *Dumpy's Friends on the Farm* except for a tractor, which we only know is animated from other Dumpy books.

I prefer Tony Walton's illustrations of animals, so I have to say I enjoyed *Dumpy's Friends on the Farm* more than *Dumpy and the Firefighters*. I did enjoy the rooster, which is a recurring character in the Dumpy books although he doesn’t crow in this one. *Dumpy and the Firefighters* is still a fine book though; it gets 4/5 stars from me. Its recommended age group of 3-7 seems a bit young to me; it seems to me that it would take a precocious 3 year old to follow this plot. But who knows? Perhaps they don’t make 3 year olds like they used to. When I was 3 years old, Kennedy was president.

[Johnboy Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Juile andrews.
my mom enjoys her and I figured she like me reading her books

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

very cool that The Julie Andrews is the author of these books and her daughter helps illustrate it. isaac loves this book b/c he wants to be a firefighter.