35 Comments

So wonderful to have you back, Sarah! And what a great list to kick it off with. Curious to know, as a city girl do you find yourself needing to go to cities to “recharge” so to speak?

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You know, the answer is yes and no. I have learned to love a lot of things about living in the country, not least of which is a kind of peace that wasn't available to me -- or, more likely, that I didn't know how to access -- earlier in my life. I also work in a city -- it's not a huge one, but it helps me get what I need in that sense, in kind of a living-a-double-life way (that involves an enormous amount of driving).

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This is me… I need to be where the people are. My ideal day is a city day - museum, yoga class, cafe, wander the shops.

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I've come to really appreciate all the things I grew up with but no longer have, can still access fairly easily, and then turn around and go home where I can see so many stars and hear the coyotes howling...

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Mar 5Liked by Sarah Miller

Yaaayyy! Welcome back! What joy to wake up to this email this morning.

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Thank you! I'm so glad.

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Mar 5Liked by Sarah Miller

Yay, welcome back! Have missed you in this space! Also, have to tell you I started the Dory Fantasmagory series with my daughter and she's obsessed! Picking up the third one from the library today :)

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So happy to hear this. Anytime I am the reason someone falls in love with Dory, I feel like my work is done here 😂

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I didn’t realize I was missing out on so many city books! Also, hurray for reading The Crossover. LOVE that book! I took some inspiration from that book for some of the poems in my own verse novel.

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I mean I assumed it was going to be good, I just had no idea *how* good.

I'm increasingly fascinated by (and reading more and more) novels in verse, especially middle grade. I'd love to hear what other titles inspired you (or that you just love).

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I grew up in the suburbs but find myself drawn to the city life. What a great roundup of books! We own several of these but I've checked out others from our library. I think they do give a good peek into what life is like for other kids.

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Such a delight to see you in my inbox again. I'm so so glad you took a break (yay breaks!) for you, and also for me, for the reminder of how much I love your newsletter.

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😘😘

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These are fantastic!! So glad to have you back :D That neighborhood mother goose looks absolutely delightful!

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It's so good -- I especially love how it has photographs of real kids living in urban environments.

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Mar 5Liked by Sarah Miller

Happy to have you back! Glad you got a break, too. My three-month break is coming to an end. How was it three months?! And I’ve definitely been slogging. Your dedication to this excellent newsletter is so inspiring! What a great selection of city books!

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Thanks, Taylor. I had more than one day when I was like, "What is the point of this again? Why am I doing this?" I know you get it.

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Mar 5Liked by Sarah Miller

Welcome back!

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Mar 5Liked by Sarah Miller

Welcome back! It’s so good to see you in my inbox again. Adding Windows to my library list immediately. And I love that you’re reading Dozens of Doughnuts. I can almost recite that book by heart at this point. Such a great one from this newsletter.

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It's such a gem 🍩

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I grew up in American suburbia, spent 3 years in San Francisco before relocating to Edinburgh, and am now in the Scottish countryside. There are literal hallmark movies filmed in our village and honestly, after nearly 4 years, I’ve never reconciled myself to it. I’m trying to be less of a pathetic brat about it and I’ve refrained from making a “kid graduates from high school and I can move back” countdown chart, but ugh… I work from home a lot and will just take the bus into the city and work from the cafe/library, and pretend I still live there. But I’m always trying to figure out how to raise a city kid in the country - we practice navigating public transport all the time, how to behave in a busy city, etc.

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Welcome back, Sarah! Great post (as usual!:)

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Thank you, my dear 🩷

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Nice to see you in my inbox again! Hey, how was Shen Yun? The ads were catching my eye, but then I read the reviews and they weren't selling me on it...

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Mar 6Liked by Sarah Miller

We like the Big Cities Little Foodies picture book series by Cheryl Yau Chepusova!

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author

Oooh, this is new to me; thank you!

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Mar 6Liked by Sarah Miller

Happy to "see you" in my inbox today :) I don't have any recommendations about cities...just wanted to mutually gush over the beauty that is Shen Yun!!

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It was very beautiful. I was also a little underwhelmed by the stories -- I'd rather is just have been two hours of dancing.

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Mar 6Liked by Sarah Miller

I completely agree. The costumes, dancing, movements.... *chefs kiss*

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I loved what you said about windows, and cities. My husband did that for me--moved to a small town, although he was very happy in the city. (I grew up in a tiny town, lived in several cities, and now we live in a tiny town now about half the size of yours.) I loved hearing you talk about it, thanks for sharing that piece. It can get pretty complicated! I'm such a fan of the Mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. I still love that book in my fifties. Have you read The Little Witch by Margaret Mahy? The city is a wonderful character in it.

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I have NOT and now must get my hands on it ASAP -- thank you!

And yeah, where to live, especially if you are from different places with different life experiences and different needs, is more complicated than it seems.

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