Gironde: the fires of summer 2022 through the eyes of a squirrel, in the children's album "Fire!"

The megafires of summer 2022 inspired Pascale Moisset and Yves Viallard. In their new children's book, they recount the disaster, but also the rebirth of nature.

A book dedicated to the forest. In the children's album "Fire!" published at the end of May 2025, Pascale Moisset and Yves Viallard offer an ode to nature and its capacity for resilience. The Bordeaux-based writer was inspired by the megafires of the summer of 2022 in Gironde. "I was at the beach, we could see the column of smoke from La Teste. In Bordeaux, the smoke invaded the city too. I wasn't personally affected, but this tragedy of life obsessed me." Pascale Moisset describes her need to know everything about this disaster. "I watched the news channels, I read "Sud Ouest," I searched social networks, I accumulated a lot of documentation as I went along." She confides: "I'm a sponge, I experienced things by proxy."

To be fair, the author went into the field. In July 2024, she was welcomed into residence at Chalet Mauriac (owned by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region), in Saint-Symphorien, one of the towns evacuated during the fires. "I surveyed what remained of the forest, including the closed sites where smokehouses remained. I understood that the trauma was still there." She met with victims, firefighters, and flora and fauna specialists from the Landes de Gascogne Natural Park and the National Forestry Office.

Throughout her immersion, she sent photos to Yves Viallard, whom she convinced to work on this subject for a new children's book. The duo had already collaborated on the album " Surf, surf, surf ." They share a love of nature. The illustrator, who is also a walker and surfer, reveals: "Nature inspires me more than humans."

For "Fire!", they chose a squirrel as the main character. The first pages reveal a lush nature, populated by varied species: the marsh copper butterfly, the Dartford warbler, the broom, the alligator weed, the goshawk, the European pond turtle, the dragonfly... But, quickly, the small animal and its ecosystem are turned upside down. A fire affects the forest.

The color palette evolves toward red and orange. Flames take over. "Flames leap from the thickets with great strides, swirling like dancing angels [...]," writes Pascale Moisset. "I discovered this expression to describe the rolls of flames while talking to firefighters." Yves Viallard states: "Fire is very graphic. I wanted the colors to explode in my drawings, all done by hand in acrylic."

Could the album's central theme be anxiety-inducing for younger children? "In schools, some children told me that fire was beautiful. I heard 'It's terrible,' but also 'It's magnificent.' Sometimes we project our perceptions onto them," says Pascale Moisset. "Children's literature is full of things in life that are frightening. In 'Fire!', the squirrel experiences a tragedy, but nature reclaims its rights."

“Fire!”, by Pascale Moisset and Yves Viallard, published by Courtes et Longues, 48 p., 24 euros.