City I Love

By Lee Bennett Hopkins

City I Love sparkles like the lights in Times Square Featuring eighteen poems that guide the reader on an international tour--from New York to San Francisco, London to Tokyo, and beyond--this exuberant collection is the perfect read-aloud for city kids, aspiring world travelers, and adventurous spirits everywhere. Beloved children's poet Lee Bennett Hopkins and New Yorker artist Marcellus Hall, an exciting children's book newcomer, have crafted an extraordinary urban-themed collection that celebrates the beauty, diversity, energy, architecture, and excitement of city life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810983273
• ISBN13: 9780810983274
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.8" x 10.9"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

This is a fascinating and fun whirlwind tour of some of the largest, most vibrant cities in the worl

A hound dog is sitting on the Chrysler building overlooking Manhattan. He's got a backpack strapped to his back and he's ready to travel the world to visit many cities. New York is a good start but he's planning on visiting many because he's a city dog at heart. What cities would you like to visit? The little hound dog's curiosity will take him to San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis, Mexico City, Toronto, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Rio De Janeiro, London, Paris, Venice, Cairo, Moscow, Johannesburg, Delhi Tokyo and Shanghai. Get ready to travel the world with this little city dog on a bow WOW trip! SING A SONG OF CITIES Sing a song of cities. If you do, Cities will sing back to you. They'll sing in subway roars and rumbles, People-laughs, machine-loud grumbles. Sing a song of cities. If you do, Cities will sing back. Cities will sing back to you. This is a fascinating and fun whirlwind tour of some of the largest, most vibrant cities in the world. Some people are country folk at heart, but an equal number are in love with the city. The poems were captivating and along with the vibrant artwork they made this bustling work come to life. If you're a city gal or guy and would like to impart your love of it to a youngster, you're going to have to add this book to your list!

When the lights go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bay.

It's funny to think that in the past most American kids lived on farms, yes? Nowadays the bulk of young `uns have at least a passing familiarity with big city life, even if they don't live there themselves. So I sit and stare at this picture book collection of city-based poems and I think about it. What audience are we reaching out to here? Are there kids enthralled by bright lights, big cities? Do they wonder about far away places, and are willing to take a trip there, albeit a roundabout one via poetry? It's times like these that, as a children's librarian, I need to remember that not every book written for kids needs to fill a specific niche. I'm so used to answering reference questions that sometimes I forget that books like "City I Love" by Lee Bennett Hopkins are written to expand young minds, not limit them to what they already know. It's a strange little collection, but strange isn't bad. It's just different. So if you've space on your shelves for the "different" out there, this should probably suit you just fine. Over the years poet Lee Bennett Hopkins has written a variety of poems that, one way or another, refer to urban living. From 1971's "Subways Are People" (a bold statement from 1971, I'd like to add) to the 2002 "City I Love", Hopkins has repeatedly given voice to the good and bad of urban living. Now eighteen of these poems have been collected. Set against a backdrop illustrated by Marcellus Hall, we see each poem take place in a different major city. "Get `em Here" shows a hot dog seller in D.C. "Snow City", appropriately, takes place in Toronto. Every poem shows a different aspect of city living (getting a cab in the rain, the noise, the excitement, the fire hydrants), and through it all our faithful dog guide, backpack in place, sees the sights and takes them in. Poet Lee Bennett Hopkins did not write these books in one fell swoop, so you would expect them to feel a little more disjointed than they are. As they stand, the poems in this book feel as if they fit together. Not all the poems are necessarily city-ish, but that's okay. You could argue that even though "Winter" isn't specifically metropolitan minded, any city denizen who walk in slush can understand the sentiment behind a poem that says, "NEVER / EVER / quarrel / with / winter. / It / ALWAYS / win." I think it's fair to say that illustrator Marcellus Hall has shouldered more than his fair share of the work here, though. He hasn't just drawn pretty pictures for a book. He's given it a form and a narrative. Where once it was just a series of vaguely city-related poems, now we follow a well-backpacked dog traveler and his faithful pigeon companion. It's a little unclear who had this idea. Mr. Hopkins? Mr. Hall? The editor? The art director? Whosoever it may be, it works quite nicely. The front and back endpapers show a map of the world with the cities featured listed. For a second there I tried to figure out whether or not the path

Curious Pup Gives Whirlwind Tour of the Great Cities

A backpacking pup travels the world in this book of poems. With his brown backpack in tow, the curious hound takes the reader on a voyage throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia. Without the destinations mentioned by name in the book, children are given the opportunity to test their knowledge of cultures based on local dress, landmarks and points of interest. Easy to spot landmarks such as the French Quarter, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Egyptian Pyramids allow children to play a game of "where are we now?". This is a splendid read for adults who are surrounded by budding world travelers or social scientists. With detailed pictures that are filled with action, color, and a bit of history, this book does a good job at depicting the various cultures of the world. So sit back one weekend and let this little pup be your personal tour guide from San Francisco to Tokyo and everywhere in between. Reviewed by Shannon Gadley

delightful

This is a wonderful collection of poems that promote a multicultural appreciation of large cities from around the globe. There is a great picture of a gondola floating on a canal, a dog is a passenger, his one paw trailing over the side of the boat; people are sitting at a "caffe" and a tourist couple stand gawking as the boat passes by. The accompanying poem reads, "I wonder whether pouring roaring gushing rushing water spouting from our corner hydrant flows from here- goes so far- to cause lazy Venetian gondolas to bob and float as easily as our homemade wooden-popsicle-boat." Another poem honors the acrobatic skill of people who hang perilously off buildings they are helping to construct, "Why, it's like watching a razzle-dazzle razzmatazz three-ring steel circus performance appearing in the sky". This is a perfect book for sharing with an elementary school audience.