By: Annette Gagliardi
Publisher: Pocahantas Press
Publication Date: September 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-1955338073
Reviewed by: Diana Coyle
Review Date: May 9, 2025
It started out as a normal day in 1959 for the citizens of Deadwood, South Dakota in Ponderosa Pines: Days of the Deadwood Forest Fire by Annette Gagliardi. The residents went to work and it was the first day of school for the children. But things took a drastic turn for all of them when they discovered that a forest fire had broken out and evacuations were starting. People left work early, school dismissed the children to get home as soon as possible, and emergency workers, both paid and volunteer, were deployed to different sections to start tackling this blaze. Although the fire only lasted a few days, it resulted in utter devastation to Deadwood and the surrounding areas.
The first thing that stood out about this story was it was written by Annette, the second eldest daughter to Bill and Anne. The book read like a narration coming directly from Annette’s personal account of what happened to her family and the towns surrounding Deadwood. It gave it such a personal feeling while turning the pages, and it enhanced seeing the story unfold through her eyes from start to finish.
Right from the beginning, the sense of urgency and panic was extremely present. You felt what Annette and her family went through from the first emergency message reaching everyone, to the final message that the fire was finally under control days later. Since Annette came from an extremely large family that included not only her parents and her and seven siblings, but also the additional extended family members, including her aunt and uncle and their five children, this made for a story that was different than any other historical retelling out there.
As readers turn the pages, they will feel the mixed emotions immediately from not only Annette’s main point of view, but of all her family members. Most of the children were under 12 years old, so you can hear and feel their panic and uncertainty of what was going to happen. You can easily step into any one of the characters’ footsteps, and feel what they were feeling. The sense of losing everything they worked hard for was predominant throughout. One can only imagine how scared everyone was that one day they have a roof over their heads, and the next they were worrying that all 17 of them could very well be homeless if the forest fire wasn’t contained quickly enough.
Quill says: Readers will become fully immersed in Ponderosa Pines: Days of the Deadwood Forest Fire by Annette Gagliardi, making it easy to develop feelings for all the characters that played a role throughout this story. Well done, Ms. Gagliardi!
For more information about Ponderosa Pines: Days of the Deadwood Forest Fire, please visit the author's website at: annette-gagliardi.com
The Tale of the English Templar
Ponderosa Pines: Days of the Deadwood Forest Fire
On the Precipice of the Labyrinth
Born to Trouble (The Clan Donald Saga Book 4)
Asayi: An Autistic Teen's Journey to Topple a Shogun in Medieval Japan
Drausin and Josephine: We Too Shall Pass
American Salvation: How Immigrants Made America Great
Cold War: A Novel of the Berlin Airlift
Tea and Toil at the Woman's Club
Poetic Justice (The Publius Ovidius Mysteries, Book 1)
A Brief History of France: Empires, Kings, and Revolutions
Louis Mie and the Trial of Hautefaye
Daughters of Green Mountain Gap
Danish Connection: The Dansgaard Family Saga
Babylon Laid Waste: A Journey in the Twilight of the Idols
The Strongest Heart (The Clan Donald Saga, Book 3)
Cold Peace: A Novel of the Berlin Airlift, Part I
Hair Goes History: How Hair Enhancement Has Shaped the Arc and Trembling Hand of History
Letters from Jenny: A Historical Novel
A Winter's Coat: U.S. Marine Corps Warhorse
One More Seat at the Round Table: A Novel of Broadway's Camelot
A History of Silence (Book One of the Heartland Trilogy)
Distress & Determination: The Trials of Frederick Darcy, Young Gentleman
Cherokee Steel (Cherokee Passages, Book 3)
The Lighthouse (The Cyrenian, Book 1)
Love and Kisses, Charlie: WWII Letters From a Jewish-American Serviceman
Bound by Honor (The Clan Donald Saga, Book 2)
Seeing Glory: A Novel of Family Strife, Faith, and the American Civil War
Transgression: Hitler, Mirka, Mireille and Me
The Light Among Us: The Story of Elizabeth Carne, Cornwall
Season of My Enemy (Heroines of WWII)
Moral Fibre: A Bomber Pilot's Story
Pioneer Passage (Journey of Cornelia Rose, Book 3)
Mrs. Witherspoon Goes to War (Heroines of WWII, Book 4)
Knights of the Air, Book 1: Rage!
Grounded Eagles: Three Tales of the RAF in WWII
Blood Before Dawn (The Dung Beetles of Liberia, Book 2)
Stolen: Civil War Series, Volume 1
The Reluctant Queen: The Story of Esther
The Zodiac Revisited, Volume 1: The Facts of the Case
The Abalone Ukulele: A Tale of Far Eastern Intrigue
Brandy: Ballad of a Pirate Princess
A Most Clever Girl: A Novel of an American Spy
Traitors for the Sake of Humanity: A Novel of the German Resistance to Hitler
Equus Rising: How the Horse Shaped U.S. History
The Queen's Dog (Empire at Twilight Book 3)
Vestal Virgin: Chosen for Rome
The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can
Where Eagles Never Flew: A Battle of Britain Novel
Walk Away West (Journey of Cornelia Rose Book 2)
Babylon Laid Waste: A Journey in the Twilight of the Idols
Balian d'Ibelin: Knight of Jerusalem (Jerusalem Trilogy)
The House at the End of the Moor
A Shadowed Fate (A Lord Byron Mystery)
My Name Is Saul: A Novel of the Ancient World
The Gray Chamber (True Colors)
My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton
Self-Styled: Chasing Dr. Robert Vernon Spears
Chicago Rink Rats: The Roller Capital in Its Heyday
Miep and the Most Famous Diary: The Woman Who Rescued Anne Frank's Diary
The Dung Beetles of Liberia: A Novel Based on True Events
The Emperor Strikes Back: Frederick II's War against his Vassals
Flirtation on the Hudson (Journey of Cornelia Rose)
Days to the Gallows: A Novel of the Hartford Witch Panic
I, Claudia: A Novel of the Ancient World
The White City: True Colors - Historical Stories of American Crime
Rebels Against Tyranny: Civil War in the Crusader States
Operation Archangel: The Scouts of St. Michael
The Cumberland Bride: Daughters of the Mayflower, Book 5
The Patriot Bride: Daughters of the Mayflower, Book 4
The Pirate Bride: Daughters of the Mayflower, Book 2
The Mayflower Bride: Daughters of the Mayflower, Book 1
Kublai Khan: Khan of Mongol, Emperor of China
Destiny by Design: Leah's Story
Building the Great Society: Inside Lyndon Johnson's White House
Maid of Baikal: A Novel of the Russian Civil War
The Last Crusader Kingdom: Dawn of a Dynasty in Twelfth-Century Cyprus
Return to Babylon: The Orfeo Saga, Book Five
Leningrad 1941 - 42: Morality in a City Under Seige
The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence: A Story of Botticelli
The Wanderer's Last Journey: The Orfeo Saga, Book Four
Zurga's Fire: The Orfeo Saga, Book Three
A Lady’s Code of Misconduct (Rules for the Reckless)
To Shine With Honor - Book One: Coming of Age
The Brontë Sisters Boxed Set: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Villette
Envoy of Jerusalem: A Biographical Novel of Balian d'Ibelin
Shot Down: The true story of pilot Howard Snyder and the crew of the B-17 Susan Ruth
The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian
Calico Spy: Undercover Ladies series
Médicis Daughter: A Novel of Marguerite de Valois
American St. Nick: A True Story
The Wild West of Louis L'Amour: An Illustrated Companion to the Frontier Fiction of an American Icon
Defender of Jerusalem: A Biographical Novel of Balian D'Ibelin
The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach
Café Europa: An Edna Ferber Mystery
Undercover Bride: Undercover Ladies series
War Bonds: Love Stories from the Greatest Generation
Death of a Diva: From Berlin to Broadway
Wall, Watchtower, and Pencil Stub: Writing During World War II
Sprouting Wings: Book One in the Alan Ericsson Series
What the Lady Wants: A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age
Grand Central: Original Stories of Postwar Love and Reunion
The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
The Wild Dark Flowers: A Novel of Rutherford Park
Enduring Courage: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed
Time-Life World War II In 500 Photographs
Simple Faith: The Peacemakers Series, Book Two
Sinners and the Sea: The Untold Story of Noah's Wife
America’s Greatest Blunder: The Fateful Decision to Enter World War One
The Winter Warrior: A Novel of Medieval England
Downtown Strut: An Edna Ferber Mystery
The Serpent and the Pearl: A Novel of the Borgias
Indivisible? The Story of the Second American Civil War
Shades of Death: The Gauntlet Runner Book II
Holy Smoke: A Jerusalem Mystery
Through Irish Eyes: A Visual Companion to Angela McCourt's Ireland
Dogs of War: The Stories of FDR's Fala, Patton's Willie, and Ike's Telek
The FitzOsbornes at War: The Montmaray Journals, Book Three
The Story of the Costume Drama
The Forsyte Saga Collection - DVD
Molly, by Golly!: The Legend of Molly Williams, America's First Female Firefighter
The Lost Artist: Five Star Mystery Series
Emanuel and the Hanukkah Rescue
The Color of War: How One Battle Broke Japan and Another Changed America
Dr. Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty
The United States Constitution: A Round Table Comic Graphic Adaptation
Ghost Train to Freedom: An Adventure on the Underground Railroad
Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany
Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
Lives like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds
A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons
A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France
Napoleon’s Privates: 2,500 years of History Unzipped
Red-Robed Priestess: a novel (Fourth volume of the Maeve Chronicles)
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
The Women of the Cousins' War: The Duchess, the Queen, and the King's Mother
Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Strikingly True
Voices of the Bulge: Untold Stories from Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge
Innocent War (Behind An Immigrant’s Past Series, Book I)
Gone: A Heartbreaking Story of the Civil War
Bombs Away! The World War II Bombing Campaigns over Europe
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
Time of the Quickening: Prophecies for the Coming Utopian Age
From Jazz Babies to Generation Next: The History of the American Teenager
How to Read World History in Art
Tasting the Universe: People Who See Colors in Words and Rainbows in Symphonies
Alice Ray and the Salem Witch Trials
George’s Candy: Rescue, Death, and Love in Vietnam
Valley Forge: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory
Haunted Ozark Battlefields: Civil War Ghost Stories and Brief Battle Histories
Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History
Norah: The Making of an Irish-American Woman in 19th Century New York
The Alodia Scrapbook: Vol. 1: Creating a New Paradigm, 2001-03
v2036: A Tale of Sociopolitical Change in a Militarized Venezuela
Did Castles Have Bathrooms?: And Other Questions About the Middle Ages
The Library: An Illustrated History
Spartacus: Blood and Sand, The Complete First Season
Frozen in Time: Murder at the Bottom of the World
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
It Simply Must Be Said: A View of American Public Education from the Trenches of Teaching
The Hidden Scroll: An Archeological Adventure
The Last Leaf: Voices of History’s Last-Known Survivors
The Throne in the Heart of the Sea
Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet
A Parisienne in Chicago: Impressions of the World’s Columbian Exposition
Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History
Daughters of the Witching Hill
The Keeper’s Gift (or Uley’s Journal)
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries
Al-Battani Shield: Counteracting Global Warming: A New Approach
Nelson’s Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts
Anne Frank: Her life in words and pictures from the archives of The Anne Frank House
Leaving the Alamo: Texas Stories After Vietnam
Snapshot: The Visual Almanac for Our World Today
Murderous Intellectuals: German Elites and the Nazi SS
TIME Great Discoveries: Explorations that Changed History
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte
Sisterhood Of Faith: 365 Life-Changing Stories About Women Who Made A Difference
The Illustrated History of Hypnotism
Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, Vol. 1
Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, Vol. 2
The Court-Martial of Charlie Newell
Disclosure in Accordance with FTC Guidelines 16 CFR Part 255
Copyrights © 2023 Feathered Quill Reviews All Rights Reserved. | Designed & Developed by Unglitch.io