10/10/2016
From transportation and housing to unseen infrastructure beneath the streets, this upbeat and thorough guide to what makes a city a city lets readers peek inside buildings, vehicles, and various attractions. A mix of full-page and smaller flaps are used to cutaway effect as the book looks at how cities grow out of villages and towns, the bustle of daily life within them (an enormous skyscraper foldout is a particular highlight), and what future cities might look like. Tidbits about real-life buildings, parks, and subway systems complement the more general facts and descriptions, and Hancock’s cheery cartooning packs the pages with details to explore. Ages 8–12. (Nov.)
"Likely to prompt young city dwellers to a broader understanding of their environment."—Kirkus Reviews
"This upbeat and thorough guide to what makes a city a city lets readers peek inside buildings, vehicles, and various attractions."—Publishers Weekly
"The detail in the illustrations and text makes this an attractive offering to children."—School Library Journal
"It's Richard Scarry grows up and meets urban planning. "—Shelf Awareness
"This clever guide to the inner workings of a big city will provide long and lasting activity to the young and inquisitive mind."—Story Monsters Ink
"With whole pages that fold out and lots of smaller, subsidiary foldouts, the book invites children ages 3-7 to explore construction sites, urban green spaces and the anatomy of an apartment building."—Wall Street Journal
"Using a series of flaps and gatefolds, How Cities Work gets to the heart of the intricate functions of metropolitan areas. To the casual observer, cities can look and sound like chaos, but in this interactive book, young readers learn about the interdependent systems that make cities hum, including transportation, utilities, housing, and sanitation...Delightfully intricate illustrations invite readers to notice new, small details with every look...Complex STEM topics share space with fun trivia in this interactive and informative science and geography resource."—Booklist
"This clever guide to the inner workings of a big city will provide long and lasting activity to the young and inquisitive mind."
"It's Richard Scarry grows up and meets urban planning. "
"With whole pages that fold out and lots of smaller, subsidiary foldouts, the book invites children ages 3-7 to explore construction sites, urban green spaces and the anatomy of an apartment building."
"Using a series of flaps and gatefolds, How Cities Work gets to the heart of the intricate functions of metropolitan areas. To the casual observer, cities can look and sound like chaos, but in this interactive book, young readers learn about the interdependent systems that make cities hum, including transportation, utilities, housing, and sanitation...Delightfully intricate illustrations invite readers to notice new, small details with every look...Complex STEM topics share space with fun trivia in this interactive and informative science and geography resource."
"Using a series of flaps and gatefolds, How Cities Work gets to the heart of the intricate functions of metropolitan areas. To the casual observer, cities can look and sound like chaos, but in this interactive book, young readers learn about the interdependent systems that make cities hum, including transportation, utilities, housing, and sanitation...Delightfully intricate illustrations invite readers to notice new, small details with every look...Complex STEM topics share space with fun trivia in this interactive and informative science and geography resource."
"With whole pages that fold out and lots of smaller, subsidiary foldouts, the book invites children ages 3-7 to explore construction sites, urban green spaces and the anatomy of an apartment building."
12/01/2016
Gr 3–6—Employing cartoonlike drawings, Feroze introduces elementary students to the evolution of a nameless city from its small, humble beginnings to a thriving metropolis. The book begins with a drawing of a tiny village with a river, fields, pastures, and a few buildings. Over the next several pages, readers see the locale grow as more structures are built, more people move in, and civil services such as police and fire departments are created. High-rises, recreational opportunities, and parks are also presented. Finally, the author provides a vision of how cities may look in the future. The addition of foldout pages and flaps enhances the reading experience. The intricate, colorful drawings, dominated by gray and green hues, are the primary attraction and are aptly complemented by the writing. VERDICT The detail in the illustrations and text makes this an attractive offering to children and superior to other titles, such as Esther Porter's Peeking Under the City.—Margaret Nunes, Gwinnett County Public Library, GA
2016-10-19
A survey of typical urban features and structures, with flaps and gatefolds offering peeks beneath the surface.In simplified schematic views populated by small, generic figures of diverse age and skin color, Hancock (who also illustrated Jane Price's Underworld: Exploring the Secret World Beneath Your Feet, 2014) traces the growth of a city from early village and walled town to bustling metropolis. Closer street-level looks at types of buildings and green spaces, high rises, general services, government buildings, and recreational facilities follow, capped by an unlikely but properly futuristic vision of self-contained cities built within stacked-up domes. The tidbits within are tailor-made for detail-hungry young readers, as in one flap that lifts to reveal Big Bertha, the "biggest tunnel boring machine in the world" at over 17 meters across, and a gatefold that opens to present a cross section of what lies beneath the streets. The city presented is fairly generically European, but specific examples are taken from all over the world, including Toronto, Hong Kong, and Seoul. Though the commentary scattered through each scene occasionally devolves to chatter ("How many things can you see?"), Feroze's concise explanations of spaces, processes, and elements of infrastructure are generalized enough to be applicable to many specific locales. Likely to prompt young city dwellers to a broader understanding of their environment. (Informational novelty book. 7-10)