I love picture books, places and poetry – so City I Love seems the perfect book for me to feature for the kid’s book of the week as National Poetry Month gets underway.
City I Love is a new release from Abrams (who just revamped their website) that features poems by Lee Bennett Hopkins and wonderful watercolor illustrations by Marcellus Hall. Each set of stanzas is set against the backdrop of a different world city – Cairo, Delhi, Venice, Shanghai, Moscow, Rio, London, Toronto and more, plus a few US cities, including San Francisco, Chicago and New York.
The global city is celebrated for the universality of its diverse people, complex transportation, towering buildings, intense seasons and pulsing 24-hour rhythms. It’s a fun journey (with a cute brown dog) through the urban days and nights that all cities share in common. And it’s linked by short poems that introduce children to subways, taxis, hydrants, skyscrapers and other marvelous city sights.
“City is the place to be, City is the place for me.” Agreed. PW likes it too.
Oh, and check out this great interview with illustrator Marcellus Hall about his background and the creative process of designing this delightful book. (The part about the hot dog vendor is especially interesting.) Marcellus also happens to be a talented musician — a clip of his music appears at the end of the interview post. Enjoy!
I don’t mind the rain this morning, even though I have to head out into it soon. Rainy Sunday mornings, or any rainy mornings for that matter, are wonderful — when you have good books to read. Here’s a recap of what I’ve been reading lately:
I just finished The City of Your Final Destination, suggested by a bookseller friend. (Who got it via recommendation from another bookseller friend.) Loved it. Loved what was not written between what was. I’m eager to read another Peter Cameron book, and have renewed interest in a trip to South America.
Also spent some time this morning flipping though Audrey Niffennegger’s The Three Incestuous Sisters, a “visual novel” she labored on for 14 years. It’s a work of art, with a fantasy story intertwined. Creative and thought-provoking. Glad I stumbled upon this unique one at the library.
I did not pick up Middlemarch again this morning, although I might take it for the subway ride today. My original plan was to “read Middlemarch in the month of March” but I see now that I’ll be reading it for awhile…maybe I’ll finish George Eliot’s classic by next March? More likely, sometime this summer. Short chapters make it easy to digest this hefty story in sizeable chunks.
There are new titles I am excited about (but have not read yet), and kid’s books to talk about next time. But right now, I’m off to the bookstore.
I finally got around to visiting my local libraries, the Washington Heights and Fort Washington branches. I spend so much time in bookstores (which is wonderful!) but I’ve become very disconnected from libraries, so I thought it was about time to visit the ones in my neighborhood.
The Washington Heights branch is large, with a huge children’s room on the second floor, but it’s run down and a bit depressing – except for the fact that there were a few folks using it. But for so much room, it seems to be an underutilized space in need of an upgrade and a new coat of paint.
But the Fort Washington branch (pictured here) was a pleasant surprise, especially since from the outside I didn’t expect to find much. Several years ago this branch received a grant to refurbish the children’s room – it is a fantastically decorated wonderland for kids! See some additional photos here. (The downstairs adult section is nice too, with a balcony on one side. The basement reference area is so-so, felt claustrophobic down there.) But the kid’s room was really exciting to see!
I’ve begun exploring the possibility of going to graduate school for library & information science, so expect to see more posts about my library explorations in the future.
When I lived on Riverside Drive (at 155th), I left the apartment one morning and discovered an artist with his easel, right there on the sidewalk in front of my building. I’m pretty sure he was painting this, although if he flipped his easel around, he could have been painting this too. (The building where I used to live is the first one on the right.)
Now I’ve moved a few blocks north and live closer to
the hospital, and with a view of the bridge. And no surprise, this talented local artist has captured those in color too. I am sure there are many artists living in my neighborhood, but the work of Tony Serio is what I’m most familiar with at this point. And I really like his stuff, for the way it brings to life the everyday images of the streetscapes, landscapes and buildings where I live.
Tony had a show at Boricua College over the winter holidays that was lovely, and now he is showing once again, this time at two different locations affiliated with Columbia University. From today through April 24th, you can see Tony’s Views of Northern Manhattan exhibiting at the Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion (1150 St. Nicholas Ave. at 168th) and at the Lasker Biomedical Research Building (3960 Broadway at 166th). Many of Tony’s paintings and drawings are on his website, so be sure to click on the “more paintings” link several times to see his full online archive, which also includes older works featuring parts of Brooklyn as well.
I stumbled upon Fortunately in the library the other day. A thin paperback version of this 1964 classic by Remy Charlip was sitting on a table in the Washington Heights Library children’s room. I recognized it immediately as a book from my childhood, and fondly thumbed through it. Ned’s journey is such a fun, simple, carefree story, and I recall reading it often as a child. Fortunately, I still remember some of what I read as a child!
Charlip has many fans, including author/illustrator Brian Selznick, who asked Remy to be the model for Georges Melies in The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Cool to see creative authors collaborate like this! Brian also links to a short essay written by Remy called A Page is a Door – interesting food for thought as all of us folks in bookselling and publishing wonder where the future of books is going: “…I fantasize a sea of type…”
The view of midtown from the Pulaski Bridge (that connects Queens & Brooklyn) is pretty spectacular, especially at night. The drawbridge went up as I began my cross back into Queens earlier tonight, so I snapped a few photos while I waited. Not sure if my shaky hand or the full moon is to blame for this blurry shot, but it seems to have captured the excitement I was feeling for the city at the moment I took it.
I love the name of this new photo exhibit and accompanying book by Magda Biernat. And I really like the look of it too:
Opens tomorrow at The Half King with an artist’s talk and slideshow. See more photos from the collection here and buy the book at Blurb here.
Every March my mind wanders back to this peaceful slice of paradise in southern Spain. Three years ago I spent some time pruning fig trees during the almond blossom in the mountainous Alpujarras region of Andalucia. In my mind it remains one of the most perfect places on earth.
The place where I stayed, Cortijo Ingles, is mentioned in the book South from Granada by Gerald Brennan.
I’m a fan of Manhattan User’s Guide daily newsletter, and the unique features they produce that creatively package bits of NYC each day. A few days ago they did a roundup of their recent ‘Take Five’ features. Five elixirs, five islands, five NYC books, five travel websites, five city scenes…and many more. Explore them all here.
