Oops. blush Chris is right! Different Fire Cat. Well, at least that clears up my confusion about the scariness of Fire Cat wink .

I realized I didn't put a link in for the Betsy-Tacy books, so for anyone who's interested, here are two links (the second is background about the book/author):

http://www.amazon.com/Betsy-Tacy-Betsy-Tacy-Books-Lovelace/dp/0064400964

http://www.betsy-tacysociety.org/

Chris,
You aren't the only parent here who didn't have an avid, independent reader in pre-school. My DS7 wasn't into reading to himself much in pre-school either, although he would pore over picture-rich non-fiction of all levels. In fact, at 3 and 4, he preferred non-fiction read aloud (and boy was I glad when THAT passed....) At 5 he really enjoyed those abridged illustrated classics as first "long" read alouds. He and my husband read White Fang; 20,000 leagues under the sea; Treasure Island... I hope some day he'll go back and read the complete versions as well.