Author Jacqui Jorgeson meets the engine that inspired Little Buck on the line of the 2020 Walbridge Fire

Media Kit

Release Date: August 22, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-955690-49-2

Author: Jacqui Jorgeson

Illustrator: Elita Elkana

Description: Little Buck the fire truck is a little old fire engine with a big ‘ole heart. When a wildfire starts just outside town, the fancy new engines race off to answer the call, leaving Little Buck behind at the station. But as the fire grows and the big trucks run out of water, they’ll need backup. Does this little engine have what it takes to save the day in a major way?

Little Buck the Fire Truck is an instant classic that will resonate with all children but may be especially meaningful for those who live in fire-prone areas. Reading and discussing this book with children is a gentle, trauma-informed way to help them understand some of the challenging elements of wildfire, including smoke, sirens, and evacuation, while reassuring them that, in hard times, help is always on the way.

This charming little book is also Living Popups AR (augmented reality) enabled! Learn and laugh with Little Buck and his friends as they spring to life on your phone or tablet. Scan the QR code on the back cover or search for “LP Bookspace” in your App Store to experience Little Buck the Fire Truck in 3D!

The author is donating 50% of her portion of profits to support the Volunteer Fire Foundation, a registered nonprofit she founded in 2020 to support the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters in her wildfire-afflicted home region of Sonoma County, California.

Download Media Kit

Includes:

> Press release (PDF)

> Hi-res author headshots

> Photos and videos of multiple Sonoma County fires

> Dramatic videos the author herself filmed in the Glass Fire

> Photos and videos of the author meeting the engine that inspired Little Buck the Fire Truck on the Walbridge Fire

> Little Buck the Fire Truck assets (proof copy, animation videos, interview with the author, author’s original storyboards, etc)

Note: The author either owns or has permission to share all of these assets with the media and grants members of the media permission to share them with proper credit

August 2023 press release

“My son is four and he’s already lived through three historic fires,” Jorgeson said. “This is a new era. We need to equip kids with education and empathy so they can view challenges as opportunities to help one another.”

Jacqui Jorgeson

720-266-7534

jacqui@volunteerfire.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pair of Northern California moms who survived series of catastrophic wildfires publish children’s books to help other parents and kids cope with disaster

Jacqui Jorgeson, author of a new picture book called “Little Buck the Fire Truck,” is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Volunteer Fire Foundation and mother to a young son who is all too familiar with wildfire.

“He’s four and has already lived through three historic fires,” Jorgeson said. “This is a new era. We need tools to help our kids view challenges as opportunities to develop not only resilience but compassion.”

Jorgeson launched her organization in early 2020 to support underfunded volunteer firefighters. Eight months later, another megafire sparked. Surprisingly, so did her imagination.

“I was delivering supplies to the crew of a 40-year-old fire engine and I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t a wildland engine, it’s a children’s book character.’”

That night, she wrote the first draft of a manuscript about a fire engine that must overcome his limitations when wildfire threatens his town.

DiAngelo Publications will release “Little Buck the Fire Truck” August 22 and Jorgeson said she will donate 50% of her portion of profits to VFF.

Living Popups has animated the book in augmented reality, with Emmy-winning actor Richard Schiff voicing the title character.

To access the animation, readers scan a QR code on the back cover and download an app, which allows Little Buck to leap from book to screen.

“My six-year-old doesn’t always connect with books, but he was completely captivated by the augmented reality component of ‘Little Buck’,” said Sonoma County psychologist Dr. Carrie Lara. “It’ll be such a great resource to help young children who have lived through wildfire.”

Lara is no stranger to children’s books – she’s published four of them with the American Psychological Association’s Magination Press, including “Out of the Fires: A Journal of Resilience and Recovery After Disaster,” released last month.

“Out of the Fire” reads like the journal of a ten-year-old boy, complete with drawings and news clippings that reflect his attempts to make sense of his experience as a wildfire survivor.

Lara has seen disaster trauma play out in her clinical work with children and families and in her own home, which she evacuated during the 2017 and 2019 fires.

“The Kincade fire came as close as two blocks and a chicken farm away,” she said.

Lara and her husband grabbed prepared go-bags and fled with their two children, cat, and two dogs. It was the first of three times they would evacuate that same night.

“These fires aren’t going away,” Lara said. “We need to provide our children with not only comfort but real coping strategies. Books like “Out of the Fires” and “Little Buck the Fire Truck,” especially with its AR element, are an accessible, effective way to do that.”