FIRE FLIGHT: A Wildfire Escape

Humor, suspense and gorgeous illustrations combine to engage readers in this incredible true-life tale of climate change and connection.

Named a 2025 Best Children’s Book of the Year by Bank Street College, Fire Flight is a lyrical nonfiction picture book perfect for ages 3-8, illustrated by Chiara Fedele and published by Capstone.

Explore the true story of a surprise encounter high above a forest fire between a helicopter pilot and one unforgettable owl – captured in a photograph included in the book.

Now through Dec. 31, 2025: Find Fire Flight installed as the Story Walk at Gore Place!

Now out in paperback! Fire Flight is available in multiple formats in hundreds of libraries and independent bookstores, and everywhere books are sold, including: Bookshop.org | Indiebound | Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble | Target

Publisher’s Weekly: “Pruitt’s rhythmic lines narrate the unlikely but true story of an owl who escaped a California wildfire by hitching a ride in a helicopter. …A small gray owl must leave its forest perch, remaining airborne until spying a “fellow flyer” dropping water on the blaze….a kid-friendly account that simultaneously underscores the dangers of wildfire and the capacity of nature to surprise.“

Teachers, librarians, and administrators: Author Cedar Pruitt is available to come to your school, library, conference, Family Literacy Night, book fair and much more! With interactive and engaging questions, tools and activities, she helps cultivate appetites for reading, writing, poetry and nonfiction in students of all ages. Click here for rates and workshops.

Drawing on her Ed.M. from Harvard University, expertise as a facilitator, and a decade+ of hosting and observing author visits in public schools, she understands the value and opportunity of creating moments that pop for students. She invites them into the world of ideation, reading, writing and revising. Based in greater Boston, Massachusetts, she offers classroom visits and assemblies across New England, and is also willing to travel.

Notes from the Author

In October 2020, a little owl was in the path of a terrible forest fire raging through the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California.

Wondering what the owl saw? Here’s a hint:

What happened next was a surprise for everyone.

To me, the surprise sounded like a poem, so I wrote one.

Eventually, that poem about a moment of connection became a picture book.

There are so many things to think about in this story.

A Deeper Dive Into the Story

What might make a reader curious when reading Fire Flight? Some of the things that I think about:

1. I think about how those forests became so dry. After extreme drought brought on by climate change, the forests were able to burn easily and quickly. This fire, called the Creek Fire of 2020, burned for four months.
   • What actions can we take to reduce the impact of climate change?
   • What do you know about climate change?
   • How does it make you feel?
     
     
2. I think about how firefighting helicopters work, and what fire-fighting work happens on the ground and the air.
   • How do you learn to pilot a firefighting helicopter?
   • What do firefighters do to fight wildfires on the ground?
     
     
3. I think about owls!
   • Where do owls live?
   • What do they eat?
   • Have you ever heard an owl?
   • What is special about Screech-Owls?
     
     
4. I think about the connection between people and animals, and how important it is.
   • What stories have you read in which people and animals have a special connection?
   • Do you have any special connections with animals?
     
     
5. I think about forests and how much I like being in one.
   • Have you been in a forest?
   • What do you like about them?
   • What do you think the animals who live there like about forests?
     
     
6. I think about news stories and headlines, and how they can be scary, or comforting, or both at the same time, like this story.
   • What have you read in the news that makes you scared?
   • How have you gotten over being scared?
     
     
7. And I even think about what makes me feel safe, cozy, and protected.
   • For me, it helps to be with people I trust, gentle animals, in calm places like a quiet forest or on a couch with a soft quilt.
   • What makes you feel safe?