A Walk in New York, by Salvatore Rubbino
New York is a great city for walking. Anyone who has been there knows how much you see on foot, and when artist Salvatore Rubbino finally saw the city for himself, he wanted to recreate some of that in his own style.
His tribute to NYC takes the form of a father-son visit that begins when a train pulls into Grand Central Terminal. Their walk takes them past the famous lions of the main research library, up the Empire State Building for the view, past some of Manhattan’s many well-known sights, and through the smaller streets of the Village. They wrap up their day watching the sun wane on the Statue of Liberty before heading back uptown in a taxi. It’s quite a whirlwind, but it would take far more than a day to catch all of the great and famous buildings in Manhattan alone, making this a wonderfully real introduction not only to the city, but also to the wonder of seeing it for the first time through a young child’s eyes.
The art has a jaunty retro feel that puts me in mind of the illustrations of Sempé or Tomi Ungerer, as well as, appropriately, the iconic cartoons of New Yorker magazine.
The book itself is well-designed, too, with small-font facts about the city and its landmarks sprinkled across the page for interesting perusal, but not getting confused with the story text. The foldout Empire State works well to show its impressive scale, but doesn’t feel gimmicky, the way these can. All in all, a terrific way to share the wonder of the big city with a child.
Do you heart NY? Want another fun look at the city that never sleeps? There are a ton of books celebrating the Big Apple, but I love the unusual below-decks look at city infrastructure in Under New York.
A career Children’s Librarian, the Book Fairy (a.k.a. kittenpie) has worked in library systems in both New York and Toronto, and delights in sharing favourite books with kids of all ages. Since she can’t help but force books on people, she’s thrilled to have another place to do it without creeping people out the way she does at the bookstore.