A City Is
PreSchool-Grade 3-Written in free verse, the selections in this collection of short poems about New York City vary in tone and content. Some are evocative pieces that gently call up images of modern urban life: "A city is/streets crossing,/fire trucks,/bridges,/sirens,/great towers of stone,/and/one red geranium/on a windowsill." Others are specific to New York, describing the Staten Island Ferry ("Hurry, take the ferry!/By day it's cool,/by night it's starry,/and the whistle's always friendly"); local landmarks ("the moon is drifting/like a toy balloon/over the Brooklyn Bridge"); or a "pocket park." Done in colorful gouache, Greenberg's double-page paintings mimic a youngster's two-dimensional style. Observant readers will find the same mother and child in many of the illustrations, quietly connecting one poem to another. These pleasant offerings are suitable for cozy one-on-one sharing. However, the book would also fit nicely in a storytime about urban life, combined, perhaps, with such works as Carole Boston Weatherford'sSidewalk Chalk(2001) or Nikki Grimes'sC Is for City(2003, both Boyds Mills).-Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.