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Adolescence is an emotionally stormy time for kids, but it's especially so for Shane (Josh Hutcherson), a teenager being raised by single firefighter father Connor (Bruce Greenwood). Add the recent death of Shane's fire-captain uncle (Connor's brother) in the line of duty and the pending closure of their neighborhood "Dogpatch" fire station, and both Shane's propensity for skipping school and brooding in his room and his father's obsession with work seem easily explainable. When a mutt called Dewey, really a very spoiled superstar dog named Rexxx who's been presumed dead after a parachuting stunt gone wrong, turns up ! in a burning building and is rescued by the Dogpatch crew, Con! nor puts Shane in charge of caring for the dog and finding its owner. Shane and Dewey clash immediately and Shane is extremely resentful toward both the dog and his father. However, Dewey's special talents (like skateboarding and trampoline jumping), combined with his good fire-fighting instincts, soon win the admiration and affection of Shane and the entire Dogpatch crew. A series of mysterious fires causes Shane and Connor to begin to really communicate and reconnect, but those fires also threaten their very lives. At the same time, Dewey's former owner discovers Dewey's true identity and demands the return of his superstar companion. An engaging dog story that explores the difficulties of growing up and dealing with personal tragedy, Firehouse Dog is a fun family film that's rated PG due to some mildly crude humor (think potty jokes), language, and action peril. --Tami Horiuchi
Firehouse Dog Extras
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Beyond Firehouse Dog
Kids & Family Animal Films | Firehouse Dog (Paperback) | Movies for Tweens |
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Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?
What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?
How much do parents really matter?
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He studies the riddles of everyday lifeâ"from cheating and crime to parenting and sportsâ"and reaches conclusions that turn conventional wisdom on its head.
Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They set out to explore the inner workings of a crack gang, the truth about real estate agents, the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan, and much more.
Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, they show that economics is, at root, th! e study of incentivesâ"how people get what they want or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing.
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. El! sewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago dr! ug-deali ng gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe