Alberta author Marilynn Reynolds has written another fine picture book about life on the Prairies in an earlier time. Like Belle’s Journey, her previous story of the bond between a child and a horse, this book also shows a child facing one of the dangers of prairie life and solving the problem with the help of the family horse. Percy’s father thinks he is not big enough to help with the tough chores around the homestead. It is young Percy, however, who raises the alarm for a prairie fire, and he is given the task of putting out stray sparks near the house. He must fight the sparks with water from the rainbarrel, pulled on the stoneboat by Maud, the horse. Understandably skittish, Maud nearly upsets the barrel by rearing as frightened animals dash past her. His parents are off fighting the flames near their fireguard, so Percy must find a way to manage Maud on his own. His resourcefulness wins Percy his father’s praise and an acknowledgment of his new role on the farm.

With its serious tone and subject matter, and pictures mostly in muted golds and smoky greys, this book is intense and absorbing. Reynolds is able to draw the reader into the drama of everyday life, and her story is well matched by the sensitive and detailed realism of Kilby’s coloured pencil illustrations. The beauty of the prairie landscape yields to the terrifying attack of the fire, but resolution and reassurance come in the lovely concluding pictures of the relieved family embracing in a circle, and father and son facing a splendid sunset – the boy’s figure an echo of his admired father.