Kristin Kolb is the editor of Tidepool, an online news service for the Northwest that is a project of Sightline Institute.
When I became a parent three years ago, I started noticing how many kids books are about farms and animals I’ve, honestly, never seen in my 32 years. It was relatively hard to find good books that tell the story of the typical daily experience of a child—and a parent—traffic, crowds, and, well, city life.
I lived in a duplex in central Vancouver, BC, when I became a mother, and I wanted to read stories to my daughter that resembled the world she was absorbing—books about living in an apartment and riding the bus and navigating busy neighborhoods, not Old MacDonald or a Big Bad (probably endangered) Wolf.
I’m still on a quest for the best city books for kids. But here’s my starter list, largely for the toddler set.
Wow! City!
By Robert Neubecker
This richly illustrated book tells the story of a little girl and her father exploring Manhattan: They take the subway, ride the bus, walk through Central Park, watch people, and even a see a parade in Chinatown. Even though Izzy is only a toddler, it reminds me of how I felt when I first visited New York at age 17: “Wow!� There’s even a mysterious dog hiding in every picture—similar to the “Where’s Waldo?� game. Neubecker is a frequent contributor to Slate.
Madlenka
by Peter Sis
Peter Sis is a one of the absolute greats of contemporary children’s literature (honest—he’s a MacArthur "genius grant" recipient). His illustrations are masterful, intricate, and gorgeous. Among his recent works are challenging biographies of Darwin and Galileo, told in about 200 words with rich diagrams and drawings.
Madlenka tells the tale of Sis’ daughter, who marks the occasion of losing her first tooth with a walk around her city block. But her journey is really a trip around the world—she celebrates with a Latin American grocer, a French baker, an Indian immigrant who sells newspapers at his kiosk, and more.
The subsequent Madlenka’s Dog, wherein our heroine walks her imaginary dog around her block (and around the world again), is equally wonderful.
Apt. 3
by Ezra Jack Keats
Ezra Jack Keats wrote several books about city life. My favorite is Apt. 3, the story of two brothers exploring the mysterious noises of their apartment building—snoring, fighting, babies crying, and a harmonica playing. Their adventure leads to a new and unusual friendship.
Hello Hello
By Dan Zanes
A great tale of neighborhood diversity Hello, Hello, is one of Dan Zanes’ original songs put to print with fun illustrations of a city neighborhood filled with different animals, like moths and roosters and raccoons, greeting each other in Mandarin, Farsi, Spanish, German, Japanese, English—you name it. Zanes is known as the “the Elvis of the toddler set� with an empire of books and CDs and even a spot on Sesame Street.
Picturescape by Elisa Gutierrez
This local Vancouver author offers no text, just dreamy illustrations of a trip to the Vancouver Art Museum and the imaginings of a child viewing Emily Carr’s paintings of British Columbia for the first time. This is pure Cascadia in lush images of longhouses, fjords, kayaks, and the intensity and excitement of downtown Vancouver. I found this book at Magpie, a treasure-filled magazine store on Commercial Drive in Vancouver.
