Mose the Fireman

by Eric Metaxas, Everett Peck (Illustrator)

Jump to the clang of the fire bell and take a colorful ride through New York in the 1800's with Mose the Fireman. With its upbeat ragtime music, this delightful comic history echoes all the sights and sounds of early New York through the outrageous exploits and adventures of America's most famous fireman.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

40 pages, Library Binding

First published April 25, 2012

About the author

In a decidedly eclectic career, Eric Metaxas has written for VeggieTales, Chuck Colson, Rabbit Ears Productions and the New York Times, four things not ordinarily in the same sentence. He is a best-selling author whose biographies, children’s books, and works of popular apologetics have been translated into more than 25 languages.

Reviews

[Ronyell · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Mose the Fireman” is a brilliant story from Rabbit Ears Productions about how New York’s greatest fireman, Moses “Mose” Humphrey single handily saves New York city from fires everywhere. Michael Keaton’s New York accented narration along with Walter Becker and John Beasley’s jazzy music and Everett Peck’s scratchy yet hilarious illustrations make “Mose the Fireman” a worthy video for children to watch for many years.

Moses Humphrey was born in 1809, the same year that Abraham Lincoln was born and one winter, there was an enormous fire in New York and it spread all over the city. While the firemen were putting out the fire, there was suddenly a huge explosion from one of the buildings as the top half of one of the buildings was blasted to pieces and the pieces of the top half of the building fell into the East River. The firemen thought that everyone who was trapped in the building was given up for dead until one of the fireman from engine number forty heard a cry in a busted hog head. When the firemen went to inspect the hog head, they found a small red-headed baby inside the hog head and the firemen of engine number forty decided to adopt the child and they named him Moses, but everyone called him Mose.

Michael Keaton’s narration is brilliant and creative as he uses a New York accent to narrate the story, giving the story a spirited feel of the city of New York. Also, Michael Keaton sounds extremely rough yet smooth when he is narrating this story, making the characters, mainly Mose, somewhat tough guys while they save the town at the same time. Walter Becker and John Beasley’s music is jazzy and truly captures the spirit of New York. The music is also frenetic during the action scenes, making the scenes stand out very well as there is some tension added towards the music and yet the music is still jazzy enough to make people dance through the dramatic scenes rather than wait in anticipation about what is going to happen next in the scene. Everett Peck’s illustrations are scratchy yet hilarious at the same time, giving a rough feel to the story. The illustration that is the true highlight of the story is the illustration of Mose himself as he has a squared chin and is extremely muscular and yet has a friendly smile on his face throughout the video, making him somewhat a tough character who loves to help people wherever he goes.

“Mose the Fireman” is a great story for children who love to read stories about the world of firefighting and who also love to read about various tall tales in America . I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since some of Michael Keaton’s narration might be a bit too hard for smaller children to understand.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

[Shanna Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eric Metaxas proves his artistic versatility with this sprightly, irreverent rendition of the popular folk tale Mose the Fireman. A codgerly narrator mixes modern slang into his tale of Mose, the larger-than-life hero who manages to propose to his sweetheart Lize while saving the city from fire, draining the Hudson River, and singlehandedly digging the tunnel that becomes the subway system. Unlike other versions, this story doesn't end with tragedy, but with a happy wedding scene. The text rolls along jauntily, and Everett Peck's amusing illustrations evoke just the right mood.

The book itself doesn't need improvement, but there is a DVD and CD narration available through Rabbit Ears Entertainment, and there's more where that came from -- it's part of a larger collection of American folktales.

[Kerestel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny! It was interesting learning about the technology of the era and how they used pumps on the engines. They lacked the poles to slide down like firemen use these days.

[Annette Ruane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a true hero story. I enjoyed the heroism and sketches that filled the pages. I think that this book was slightly confusing though because in the beginning it says that it is a true story but as I was reading it there were parts to me that seemed impossible to be true. Mose dug a tunnel all the way to the river to get water to save a building. I think this could also be confusing to young readers because children tend to believe what they are told. I did enjoy the illustrations, I liked how they looked like sketches. The rough sketches matched the rough life style of a fire man. I wonder if this is based off of a true story of if it was a story passed down through the generations of a family. Over all it was a good book with a good story to it.

[Rani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Retold the biographical tale of Mose the fireman with a great voice.

[Nathaniel Buffington]

A simple tall tale about the adventures of a fireman named Mose. In the vein of something like Paul Bunyan. This story reinforces positive social values, and can serve as a good influence for young minds.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A legendary tale indeed.