Really, really lovely book -- great rhymes, good pacing, excellent opportunities for kids to contribute and observe. Also, yay diversity! ( )

diverse picture book (shapes, city-life/community; preschool/kindergarten ages 4-6)
* book prominently features diverse characters: yes, an African-American girl is featured, smiling on the cover; the neighborhood she passes through is also full of a realistic mix of ethnicities. The author is a Ukrainian immigrant who grew up in NYC. The illustrator has used her own 4-year-old daughter as the model for the main character (and the illustrations, a mix of watercolor and collage, are beautiful and eye-catching).
*Book would work for preschool storytime, though it might be a tad long--when I picked this book up from the library it had already had some of the pages paperclipped together (a storytime trick many of us use to abbreviate books that are slightly too long). The story has a nice, rhyming flow and the pictures are vibrant and large enough for a storytime crowd to view (though there are definitely details that would be better picked out as a one-on-one reading). This would do fine with older preschoolers/kids accustomed to sitting through circle time.
* Book works well with the "shapes" theme, but could also work for "community" or "in the city."


See also Everydaydiversity.com: http://www.everydaydiversity.com/2016/08/august-round-up.html ( )

A little girl is finding different shapes in what she sees. Shapes include a square, rectangle, triangle, circle, oval, diamond, and star. The watercolor and collage illustrations are colorful and busy, making it a fun challenge to find the items mentioned in the text. Watercolor and collage, realistic art, color used to distinguish shapes, lines used to create all the shapes, shape and space also used to highlight certain objects. Setting and plot are some elements of fiction. ( )

Used in Storytime 4/6/17 - Letter S ( )

I really enjoyed this book because all of its engaging writing and details. In this story, the narrator is a little girl who is describing the city, with great description and imagery. From "shimmering skyscrapers to fluttering kites", this book, sharing the noticings of a young girl, who is exploring the scenery around her. The message of the story is to look around and notice and appreciate the beauty of the city and within your community. In addition to that, I also really liked the illustrations and how colorful and vibrant they were.The illustrations brought the story to life and they supported Murrays well-written story. ( )