Children's books about cities

March 5

Hello, hello!

I am back from a month off from this newsletter — of course, it was the shortest month, and that’s never on accident, and when I say “break,” what I mean is that I continued planning and writing and cooking up new ideas and projects re: this newsletter as usual. I wrote a lot — there’s nothing I love more than getting way ahead of my schedule — I just didn’t hit publish, and it was nice.

(The main reason I take time “off” is to balance this work I make up for myself alongside the work I do during the daylight hours — the stuff that keeps a roof over my head and food in my children’s bellies — but that’s not to say that I don’t sometimes need to step away, even just on paper, from what I do here. I absolutely refuse to slog — my most important metric for this newsletter is not how much money I make but how much fun I’m having, and I’ve learned I need to give myself permission to take a break before the slogging sets in.)

I spent about two weeks complaining to people I love about feeling uninspired before deciding, very forcefully, to change the story I was telling myself. I stopped saying those words out loud to anyone. I started doing any creative thing that crossed my mind. And I determinedly sought out increased novel input (I took my daughters to see Shen Yun, went to a new Turkish restaurant, read a book about sports. SPORTS. Okay, it was a middle-grade novel-in-verse — highly recommend The Crossover by Kwame Alexander! I know I’m late to this bandwagon…see: book about sports.)

And I focused hard on what I want for this newsletter for the rest of the year.

I’m going to be changing a few things. That always seems to happen after I take some time off (well, that always seems to happen, period, but I’m okay with that — I never want any creative project to be a static thing). More below.

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• Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finison

• Minn and Jake by Janet S. Wong (novel in verse; this is our current read-aloud at breakfast)

• Mama Mammals: Reproduction and Birth in Mammals by Cathy Evans (we’re reading this a couple of pages at a time at breakfast)

• Eek, You Reek! Poems About Animals That Stink, Stank, Stunk* by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple (this is our current poetry at bedtime)

*Did you know that not only do tamanduas spray (like skunks), but the reach of this foul secretion is halfway down a football field?! Anyone who eschews science poetry is really missing out, I tell you

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☝️Here’s something I’m changing: I’ll no longer be including What We’re Reading each week. Instead, once a quarter or so, I’ll do an open thread where I’ll share, well, what we’re reading 😉 and then, so can you.

(Over the past year, asking you what books you and your family are really enjoying right now has been fun, and I want to do it more often.)

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Mini issue: Cities

I live in the country, in a small town of about 8,000 people, but I grew up in a city and I miss cities all the time. For various reasons, my husband can’t live in one — some things about love are negotiable, but some things about the basic makeup of the people we love are not, and city-versus-country living is not up for discussion, not if I want to help him have the type of peace he needs — so here we are, and that’s okay.

Children (and adults, in my opinion) need both mirrors and windows, though — books that reflect their identities and experiences, as well as books that offer them a glimpse into identities and experiences that are not their own — and where one lives is another opportunity to either see yourself or see others.

So, a mini issue on cities. As always, this list is not exhaustive, and I’ve missed some great titles, no doubt, so please leave your own recommendations in the comments.

If I’ve reviewed any of these, I’ve linked to those below.

Windows by Julia Denos

Picture books

• At Night by Jonathan Bean

• Anna Banana and Me by Lenore Blegvad

• Tap Tap Boom Boom by Elizabeth Bluemle

• Flower Garden by Eve Bunting

• Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! Listen to the City by Robert Burleigh

• Nana in the City by Lauren Castillo

• City Moon by Rachel Cole

• Uptown by Bryan Collier

• Windows by Julia Denos

• Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de le Peña

• City Green by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan

• Drum City by Thea Guidone

• Quiet Down, Loud Town! by Alastair Heim

• Sidewalk Trip by Patricia Hubbell

• Say Hello! by Rachel Isadora

• Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson

• From My Window by Otávio Júnior

• Good Morning, City by Pat Kiernan

• Bright Sky, Starry City by Uma Krishnaswami

• My City Speaks by Darren Lebeuf

My City Speaks by Darren Lebeuf

• City Shapes by Diana Murray

• Coquí in the City by Nomar Perez

• In the City by Chris Raschka

• All Through My Town by Jean Reidy

• Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold

• Madlenka by Peter Sís

• Small in the City by Sidney Smith

• Who Needs Donuts? by Mark Alan Stamaty

• The Gardener by Sarah Stewart

• The House on East 88th Street by Bernard Waber

Coquí in the City by Nomar Perez

Chapter books (fiction)

• The Pear Affair by Judith Eagle

• Tales of Trotter Street by Shirley Hughes

• Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner

• From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

• Coo by Kaela Noel

• A Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Nonfiction and reference

• The Ultimate Book of Cities by Anne-Sophie Baumann (I raved about Baumann’s fascinating series in my mini issue on construction)

• How Cities Work b James Gulliver Hancock

• A Day in a City by Nicholas Harris (Harris’ seek-and-finds are some of the very best out there)

• A Street Through Time by Steve Noon

• Citybook by Shelly Rotner

• A City Through Time (DK) by Philip Steele

• Book of Cities by Piero Ventura

• How a City Works by D.J. Ward

Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City by Carole Boston Weatherford

Poetry

• Street Music: City Poems by Arnold Adoff

• City I Love by Lee Bennett Hopkins

• Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City by Carole Boston Weatherford

• Bronzeville Boys and Girls by Gwendolyn Brooks

• The Neighborhood Mother Goose by Nina Crews

• City Shapes and Other Poems by Alan Durant

• “C” is for City by Nikki Grimes (an alphabet poetry book)

• Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town, selected by Paul B. Janeczko

• Kiyoshi’s Walk by Mark Karlins

• City Poems by Lois Lenski

• Wild in the Streets: 20 Poems of City Animals by Marilyn Singer (nonfiction)

• Sky Scrape/City Scape selected by Jane Yolen

The Neighborhood Mother Goose by Nina Crews

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I only ever wrote two special editions on Easter, but they’re chock-full of excellent books for the holiday:

Children's books for Easter 🐰

Children's books for Easter 🐇

If visual browsing is more your thing, take a look at my Bookshop.org list:

(All Bookshop.org links are affiliate ones, which means if you make a purchase, the Easter Bunny gets his wings and I get a tiny commission. Wait, no, wrong just the commission.)

Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah