Review by Booklist Review
Featuring whimsical, vibrant illustrations, this spotlights 34 cities, from every continent, in a highly visual, if surface-level, fashion. Each city's spread identifies its country, language(s), and population size and includes color-saturated, page-filling montages of labeled vignettes showcasing people, landmarks, and cultural elements like local foods. Montreal, for example, contains depictions of the Notre-Dame Basilica, a clock tower, and a smoked meat sandwich. New York City includes the Chrysler Building, a diner, and a legendary sewer-dwelling crocodile. The simplified, sketchlike images have a retro flavor and are often more evocative or generic than distinctly distinguished, and some vignettes, like musician or hockey player, seem randomly repeated among cities, though that does serve to highlight commonalities. The captions and depictions don't always offer meaningful explanations (like funicular), and there's a noticeable lack of pronunciation guides for complex names (like Seoul's Gyeongbokgung Palace). While the bright, playful artwork is eye-catching, children will need to look elsewhere for more substantive information, like, for example, what Nairobi's Nyayo Monument commemorates. World-map endpapers and a brief glossary add a little more context.--Rosenfeld, Shelle Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In a cursory visual overview of 34 cities across six continents, a patchwork assemblage of brightly colored rectangles house monuments, foods, and geographical features specific to each location, a format Tardif used in 2015's Sport-o-Rama. Working in a naïve, posterlike style, Tardif populates the pages with dot-eyed cartoon figures, objects, and buildings defined by loose, black lines. London highlights include Big Ben, fish and chips, and a "typical rainy day," while the Istanbul spread makes room for the Bosphorus Bridge, Galata Tower, and Turkish delight. The text is limited to image captions and brief mentions of the local population and language, so outside research is required if readers want to learn more about the buildings and objects presented; maps on the endpapers help place the cities in a larger global context. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-A romp through various cities of the world, from Auckland to Seoul, Jakarta to Stockholm, all showcased in wild color (think-the style of J. Otto Seibold). The end pages feature an illustrated labeled map that serves as a visual overview of the 34 cities spotlighted. There are nine cities from North and South America and a mix of popular and not-so-popular cities from other continents. Each country is illustrated with a spread covering things to eat, places to visit, words to know, and experiences to have (ride a rickshaw in Mumbai or look for the legendary sewer-dwelling crocodile of New York). VERDICT Geography buffs and armchair travelers will enjoy studying this book and poring over the fun cartoon graphics.-Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, Alta. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Double-page spreads represent thirty-four cities, from Vancouver to Nairobi to Auckland, with simple drawings on brightly colored grids representing major, often predictable sights, foods, art and culture, athletes, modes of transportation, neighborhoods, etc. Everything is labeled, but there are no explanations. The world map on the endpapers shows where the cities are located. A first step to get kids interested in international explorations. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
