In 1901 a businessman in Livermore, California, presented the volunteer firefighters in town with a four-watt bulb made of carbon filament and hand-blown glass to light the storage shack where fire equipment was kept. The shack eventually became a firehouse, and later a bigger firehouse was built. In each place the original bulb has burned on. This clever and engaging look at changes in a community over a hundred years uses this intriguing historical tidbit as its launching point, chronicling the arrival of cars, and later television, the increasing—and increasingly diverse—population of the community, changes in how firefighters and others respond to an emergency, and much more. Through it all, the light is the touchstone. The changes are documented in ten-year intervals in a narrative full of captivating details and illustrations reminiscent of folk art. An afterword provides additional information about the centennial light, including a photograph of it still burning today, in this picture book that would be a delight even if it weren’t based on fact—something that only adds to the pleasure. (Ages 5–9)

Day after day, year after year,
the lightbulb did not burn out. 
 
Here is the true story of a little lightbulb, located in a firehouse, that has stayed lit for more than one hundred years. As horse-drawn carriages make room for automobiles, dirt roads give way to paved streets, and new buildings transform small clusters of homes into bustling neighborhoods, a small town grows and changes. And fighting fires changes, too: fires once fought by bucket brigades and hand-pulled hose carts are now attended by full-time firefighters and modern firetrucks. Yet now, just like then, the lightbulb glows, strong and steady, above the brave firefighters and their trucks.