A Brooklyn street cat with five young kittens, Scarlett was used to fending for herself in an uncaring world. When the abandoned building where she had been living was engulfed in flames however, she faced a different kind of challenge: getting her kittens to safety. To the amazement of the firefighter who eventually found her, and all the people around the world who read her story, Scarlet returned again and again to the burning building. Although she was terribly burned, she eventually got all five kittens out...

I remember the story of Scarlet, which was on the news back in 1996, and I have read a few retellings of her story at this point, but I am always moved anew by this cat's courage. As author Nancy Loewen makes plain, both in the main narrative of Scarlett the Cat to the Rescue: Fire Hero, and in her afterword, the normal feline reaction to fire is to hide until the last minute and then make a wild dash for safety. For a cat to enter a burning building five times, with all the noise, smoke and flames around her, is truly heroic. I tear up just thinking about how frightened Scarlet must have been, and how much she must have loved her kitties. The narrative here is engaging, and the artwork from Kristin Sorra is appealing. There is an afterword that includes a photograph of the real Scarlet, and gives more information about her. Although she died in 2008, clearly, for many of us, she will live forever. Recommended to young animal lovers. ( )