The Fire Fighters Charity teams up with children’s author in launch of free book to support fire and rescue service families

The Fire Fighters Charity will this week launch a free children’s book to help fire and rescue service families to talk with their children, addressing any fears or anxieties young people may have about what firefighting family members may face in the course of their work.

HRH Duke of Cambridge has kindly provided the foreword.

The Fire Fighters Charity edition of Avril McDonald’s beautifully written and illustrated book, The Wolf Was Not Sleeping, will be published on 4 May, and can be ordered free of charge by members of the UK’s fire services community.

Each book – which features the story of a wolf cub who finds it hard to sleep because his dad is a firefighter – is supplied with a reference sheet and link to a dedicated website that contains advice and question prompts for families to use as they read the story with their children.

The Fire Fighters Charity Chief Executive, Dr Jill Tolfrey, said of The Wolf Was Not Sleeping: ‘We are honoured that HRH Duke of Cambridge has provided the foreword for The Fire Fighters Charity edition of Avril McDonald’s beautiful book, which we are delighted to be giving away to members of the UK’s fire family.

‘While children can often see the lifesaving work of firefighters as heroic – whether supporting someone on the phone from the control centre or at the scene of an accident or fire – it can be unsettling and worrying for those children whose family members are leaving home each day to face unknown dangers. This story, and the resources that accompany it, will help adults to share the pride they feel in their work with the young people in their lives, while also opening up conversations with them about the children’s worries and anxieties.’

The original idea of New Zealand firefighter and father, Kris Kennett, The Fire Fighters Charity has 20,000 copies of The Wolf Was Not Sleeping – available in English and Welsh – ready to be dispatched free of charge to members of the UK’s fire services community.

For further details and to order a copy, visit: www.firefighterscharity.org.uk/wolf