By Kate Hannigan
The 1871 fire that burned Chicago down, lived through by two children caught in it.
In 1871 a fire breaks out in Chicago and, fed by wooden buildings and a dry, windy night, races across the whole city. The comic follows two young characters through those terrifying days as the flames chase families from their homes and the city they know turns to ash. Then it does the surprising part: it shows how Chicago rebuilt itself bigger and bolder afterward, inventing the modern skyscraper city in the ruins. Real history, drawn as a fast, dramatic story.
Some children love a disaster story but stall on plain history books; this is the one for them. The fire gives it real urgency, families running, a whole city in flames, so a reluctant reader gets pulled through the pages the way they would through a survival novel, and comes out the other side actually knowing what happened and why. The rebuilding half turns it from a tragedy into an uplifting story about a city that refused to stay down. Part of the History Comics series, so there's more where it came from.