Bird & Squirrel on Fire by James Burks (2017) – Bird & Squirrel Book #4

Although this is the fourth book in the Bird & Squirrel series by James Burks, it’s my first time reading them. From this initial taste, I’m confident I’d love to read the others and hope to find them at our local library.

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Brief Summary of Bird & Squirrel on Fire

This story designed for emerging readers follows two friends who’ve apparently just returned from a wild, global adventure. Once back in the forest, they meet a beautiful new squirrel named Red, clean up Squirrel’s tree house, and deal with an angry beaver who’s dammed up the river. They also realize that a danger lurks in the darkness and has been devouring some of their forest friends.

Trouble and arguments and battles ensue, and it’s really quite uncertain how things are going to end. Truth be told, I was pretty shocked by the “Three Seasons Later…” panels on page 178. Not at all the ending I would have predicted!

Coming into It Cold

Because I’m new to the series, I honestly didn’t know how to read the characters at first. Not knowing their personalities, I had to assume some things, and actually got it wrong for the first few pages. The more you read, the more you find that Squirrel plays the straight guy, while Bird is the quirkier, sillier character.

Every duo needs this mismatch—Laurel and Hardy, Jerry and Dean, Jackie and Owen. It plays out well even on paper, and these characterizations eventually help give life to panels, even when the characters don’t speak.

In fact, those speechless panels were actually some of my favorites. James Burks handles the awkward silence well, something not easily done. Simple eye-movements from one panel to the nest brings humor to the story in the same way that characters in The Office might glance at the camera. I enjoyed that.

A Moment of Serious Reflection

The book has two key emotional climaxes, and I’ll admit that both caught me by surprise. The first one was particularly poignant for me now, as my family faces yet another international move, where we say goodbye both to our stuff and to our friends and family.

As Squirrel’s house begins to burn on pages 135-141, he has some harsh words for Bird and Red. To this, Bird responds with some powerful insight:

You think this is important? This stuff. Your home. It doesn’t care about you. It’s not going to pick you up when you’re sad. It doesn’t care whether you live or die! (139)

The reason this hit me so hard that we’ve been dealing with these exact same emotions about wanting our stuff, a home, just some basic roots for so long, even though our ministry-life won’t allow it. We’ve made peace with that, of course, but every new transition is hard in its own way.

In fact, our family has a sort-of-running-joke, playing on the idiom “Home is where the heart is.” We each have our own ways of quoting this, tongue-in-cheek:

• I say, “Home is where our house is”
• My wife says, “Home is where my ingredients and kitchenware are.”
• My son says, “Home is where home is.”
• My daughter says, “Home is where our stuff is.”

Although we all feel this way at times, it’s this last one that Squirrel feels at a gut level until Bird points out how foolish that is. Stuff is stuff. Houses come and go. Home really has less to do with property than with people, and even though we’re heading off to a new land with people we don’t yet know, we’re certain that even there w can feel at home.

I think this concept of “home” is why I’m so drawn to music on that theme. Not everyone understands this background plight of the missionary. Military families do, I suppose. It’s just something that comes with the territory.

Fantastic Art

I was a big fan of James Burks’ illustrations in this book. Bold colors. Simple yet highly emotional characters. Backgrounds that don’t distract from the story. Play with light and dark that feeds the suspense of the story.

Perhaps my favorite scene was when they hear cries for help from a pit in the forest. They look down the hole and see a character, a character we readers assume is the missing mouse. But when they get down there and see it’s a decoy, we realize that the Bird and Squirrel weren’t the only one deceived by the decoy.

Conclusion

This was humorous, suspenseful story with teachable moments and surprisingly emotional climaxes. I will look for Burks’ other stories in this series—looks like there are 7 total so far—and explore his other writings as well.

Count me an instant fan.

©2026 E.T.

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