Lego City Fire Station

Lego City Fire Station (Macmillan Children’s Books) HB RRP $9.99 ISBN 9781529048360

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

Lego bricks are known throughout the world, allowing children and fans to build and rebuild anything they can imagine. In this board book, push, pull, and slide moving parts help bring the Lego fire station to life. 

The fire chief and her crew need help to open fire station doors, load the kit, check the ladder and hose, put on helmets, then jump on board. Once the fire engine is outdoors, there is a slide mechanism to make the helicopter take off, and then slide the scene-changing mechanism is needed to drive off in the fire engine. The last page shows the fire engine with ‘the siren and the engine’s flashing light’ zooming through the streets on its way to the fire.

The thick pages with their rounded-corners will withstand many small fingers pulling and sliding the various tabs to make a helicopter appear, to make the fire engine appear to be moving forward, and much more. The illustrations are full colour with many details including a drone, inside the firemen’s office, preparations for leaving the station and, on the last page, a city scene with numerous walkers on either side of the road where the fire engine is speeding.

Another push, pull and slide board book in the Lego series is Lego City Building Site where workers toil in a huge pit on engines such as a bulldozer and crane (with a wrecking ball). They clear rubble (including Lego bricks) into a dumpster truck  and build walls, stacking them row by row. When the job is completed, the last page shows the final product of all the labours – a new school with a crowd of students ready to go indoors.

Small children from 3+ years are sure to have hours of fun with these two books in the Lego series.