A new start. A mysterious bookshop. Will being transported across space and time turn him into the hero he admires?

Noah loves his nighttime reading ritual with his dad. Stuck in a small new town after the pandemic caused his parents’ marriage to fracture, the curious thirteen-year-old happily explores the peculiar local bookstore. But when the lonely youngster takes home a firefighter’s old diary, he’s amazed when it transforms him into the book’s owner and transports him across space and time to a blazing building.

Distracted by a close friendship he’s developing with a smart schoolmate, Noah is certain the heat and confusion were just a frightening dream. But when he sits down to continue the fascinating story, he realizes he’s facing scarily real life-or-death situations… and his actions could change history.

Can he master the weird magic and make sure no one gets hurt?

The Phantom Firefighter is the action-filled first book in the First Responder fantasy series. If you like adventurous kids, clever humor, and pages jam-packed with suspense, then you’ll love J.W. Jarvis’s blending of reality and enchantment.

3% of all book sales go to First Responders Children’s Foundation, which provides financial support to children who have lost a parent in the line of duty.

The Phantom Firefighter by J.W. Jarvis is book one in the First Responder series, an action-filled adventure/fantasy middle-grade novel that takes the reader on an epic journey.

Set after the global pandemic. Schoolboy Noah lives with his dad in a small sleepy town, his parents separated during the pandemic and his mother moved away for work. One day a new shop opens up on the high street: A bookshop, but one with a difference. You don’t need to pay for the books, you don’t even have to check them out, you just need to remember to return them when you have finished – A kind of library.

Noah discovers a book about a firefighter and borrows it. That night while he is reading it with his father the two have a strange sensation that something isn’t right. Noah’s dad feels like a spectator watching the action in the book, while Noah feels like he is living the words, and has become a fireman.

This is the first step in their adventure that will see them travelling to places and times located in the story.

The Phantom Firefighter is a fast-paced children’s book that will keep the reader entertained from beginning to end. It is steeped in magical and surreal moments and is transfixing.

My tiny criticism is that there is nothing left for the reader to imagine as the author has written every tiny detail about what is happening on every page, which is a shame, as often readers like to make their own images up as they go along.

Overall, this is a book filled with heart-warming moments and bravery throughout. It is touching and exciting at the same time and will leave children satisfied and eager to read more in the series.

J.W. Jarvis lives in sunny California but is originally from the suburbs of the Windy City. When he’s not thinking of ways to create inspiring characters for young minds, you can find him reading, golfing, traveling, or just sipping a hot vanilla latte.