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Rating: 
Summary: Emotions will run the gamut from anger and sadness to joy
Review: Michele McBride is an inspiration for all of us. Never again will I complain of little aches and pains, after reading what this woman endured for more than forty years after the tragic fire. I had no idea that being burned affects your muscles and joints making them practically unbendable, and also interferes with your circulation. Michele rose above the ashes of this tragedy and can teach us all how to cope with disaster. The most horrible part of the story is how the community in which it took place basically fell apart after the fire. Children, adults and clergy alike were encouraged NOT to talk about the fire at OLA, when talking and expressing grief would probably have been the best therapy for the survivors. I lived in that neighborhood and many people said that the neighborhood "changed" because of a shady real estate practice called blockbusting. I think the neighborhood changed because the heart went out of it when all those children died - the people couldn't cope and moved away....
Rating: 
Summary: Snatched From the Jaws of Death
Review: Michelle McBride saved her life by jumping out the classroom window just as the flames were about to claim their final victims. Her body began burning just as she jumped. A second later and she would have been overcome and helpless, and sure to be the 96th victim of that horrific fire. She discusses the ordeal she faced, year after year after year. Perhaps the most surprising fact she relates was the thoughtless remarks of people.
Rating: 
Summary: Lost Childhood
Review: This book was read a number of years back while I was a student at the National Fire Academy in Maryland. As a 20+ year veteran member of the fire service and having experienced two parochial school fires myself as a child I couldn't put the book down. It's a moving personal account of a long term victim of this tradgedy in which 95 students and teachers perished. Many of the survivors faced a complete traumatic change in their lives. A newer book on this school fire tradgedy was published in 1996 (To Sleep With The Angels) and it refers to Michelle as one of the most seriuosly injured students. I'm looking for a copy of Michelle's book for my collection. I would like to refer both of these books to some movie producers. This year was the 40th annivesary of this tragic event. Professionally speaking, a fire like this could still happen again in our country.... The biggest tradgedy was after the fire and the lack of compassionate psyhcological help for the survivors and the families that lost their children so close to Christmas..... and for every Christmas thereafter.
Rating:
Summary: Lost Childhood
Review: While this book is not as professionally written as "To Sleep With the Angels," Michele McBride describes the deep psychological effect the fire had on her and other survivors. Until reading these two books on the Our Lady of the Angels School fire, I did not realize how badly burned many of the surviving students had been. Severe burns affect the body throughout adulthood. Michele McBride died in July 2001 due to multiple organ breakdown, which perhaps was an offshoot of her injuries in 1958.
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