Downtown! Biscuit Visits the City by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

Biscuit has mastered the backyard, but there are still new worlds to conquer!

"HERE WE ARE, BISCUIT, IN THE BIG CITY. . . TO VISIT OUR FRIEND, JACK!"

Biscuit is amazed by the busy big city--cars and buses and tall buildings and all sorts of people, some walking all kinds of dogs--and PIGEONS everywhere, pecking at the sidewalks, and flying up to ledges on the tall buildings and looking down at him. Biscuit wants to say hello to everyone. And there, ahead of him, is a big fountain, with some of the pigeons taking a bath in the sprinkles.

Biscuit pulls hard and his girl drops the leash, which trails behind him as he dashes toward the fountain and makes the pigeons fly up in a whirr of wings.

"OH, NO, BISCUIT! COME BACK!"

But the excited puppy stops suddenly when a quick-thinking hot dog vendor distracts him with a delicious-smelling hot dog. It's their friend, Jack, and Biscuit stops just long enough for the girl to grab his leash.

"SILLY PUPPY!"

All's well that ends with Biscuit chowing down on the hot dog, leaving most of the bun behind for the pigeons to share, in Alyssa Satin Capucilli's Biscuit Visits the Big City (My First I Can Read) (Harper I-Can-Read Books). Author Capuchilli introduces the city to both Biscuit and the young beginning readers who get to share a bit of urban life with him. Artist Pat Schories' adorable illustrations of Biscuit and his young mistress are as endearing and appealing as usual, and do an excellent job of extending the text with visual cues to Capucilli's controlled vocabulary for early readers.

You Gotta Be Squidding Me! Roof Octopus by Lucy Branam

It started with a tap at the window that woke Nora up.

There it sat--a octopus on her apartment building--a big one,

Nora has to tell somebody--quick!

Her dad, stirring waffle batter, gives a quizzical smile and her mother takes a quick look out the window and reports no octopus, until--a large tentacle wraps itself around the fire escape outside the window!

The neighbors are all abuzz, but they decide to keep their, er, housing situation quiet.

"It may be part of a migration," her father suggests hopefully.

Everyone decides to avert their gaze and pretend they know NOTHING--until Mr. Dodson's cheery wave encourages the Octopus to reach down and give him a hand washing his car. After all--many hands make light work!

And soon the helpful octopus is accepted. He walks the dogs and helps the mailman with his deliveries, and carries the neighbors' groceries upstairs, and soon he's accepted as part of the neighborhood. Nora starts making grandiose plans to take him to school for show and tell.

And then one morning...

... the Octopus was gone.

Nora is terribly disappointed that she won't get to be the star of show and tell time, but then one day, while she is in the middle of a math worksheet, there's a tap on the schoolroom window....

Mary and her famous lamb have nothing on Nora and her story of the octopus who followed her to school, in Lucy Branam's jolly story, Roof Octopus (Sleeping Bear, 2018). Rogerio Coelho's dreamlike rococo illustrations give this fun story its fantasy setting, just right for author Branam's tongue-in-cheek telling.

Always Room for More! The Big Umbrella by Amy June Bates and Juniper Bates

By the front door... there's an umbrella. It's BIG.

When April showers come your way... whatcha gonna do? Grab an umbrella!

That's just what this girl does. She's wearing her yellow slicker and green galoshes, but it's a heavy downpour and she needs a big umbrella.

But this is not your ordinary umbrella. It's a big umbrella in the usual sense, but it's also the metaphoric big umbrella," capable of extending its coverage to the many and diverse people our girl meets as she walks through the town.

It likes to spread its arms wide.
It loves to gather people in.

And gather it does, a boy in a hoodie and a girl in a tutu and ballet shoes, a Sasquatch with a briefcase and what appears to be a giant duck... and more and more. No one is turned away. Never losing its wide smile, the umbrella expands to shelter them all, even a Basset hound, a baby in a stroller, and three ducklings (who don't much seem to take to rain water, either.)

Some people worry that there won't be enough room under the big umbrella.

But there always is.

This umbrella, whose smile just gets wider as it expands, welcomes all and sundry when they need to come in out of the rain. Sweet without being smarmy, Amy June Bates' just published The Big Umbrella (Simon & Schuster, 2018) makes use of the idiom "big umbrella" in its metaphoric meaning of an overarching protection, giving meaning to its all-inclusive mission. Along with its simple narration, Bates' illustrations convey most of the meaning as the cheerful umbrella grows wider with each inclusion of a gently humorous assembly of varied figures. Artist Bates keeps the rainy cityscape in soft-focus colors which seem to melt into a watery background, giving the foreground over to the umbrella and its friends, reinforcing a theme that is organic rather than preachy. Says School Library Journal, “This sweet extended metaphor uses an umbrella to demonstrate how kindness and inclusion work...A lovely addition to any library collection, for classroom use or for sharing at home.”

Pass It On! The Pink Hat by Andrew Joyner

First, there wasn't a hat.

Then, there was...a pink hat.

Knitting by her window overlooking a busy street, a woman knits and knits until her knitting turns into a cozy pink hat, which she promptly stretches out to use as a foot warmer. But soon the woman drops it into her knitting basket and goes off to make herself a cup of tea.

But the hat doesn't stay there long. Her cat pounces on it, and bats it around... until he pushes it over the windowsill.

The wind catches the hat and blows it into the branches of a tree, where it catches the eye of some kids. One girl climbs the tree, but it is hard to reach the hat.... until the hat shakes loose and falls right onto a baby in a passing stroller, where his mother tucks it snugly around him and moves on.

That is, until... the baby gives a wiggle and a dog swipes it and makes a run for it. But when the dog gets bored and drops it, a girl passing by with a violin case rescues it.

The girl washed the hat ... and dried the hat.

She wore it again, and again, and again.

But that's not the end of the hat's adventures. It becomes a boxing glove, a mask for whomever is IT in hide-and-seek, and even a paintbrush sack... until....

She wore her pink hat,

And everyone else wore one, too!

The girl and dog join many women and some boys and men wearing pink hats in a crowd with signs that say GIRL POWER and WOMEN'S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS, while the woman and her cat watch the parade go by from her window. It's not just a hat. It's a movement!

Andrew Joyner's The Pink Hat (Schwartz and Wade, 2017)l highlights the hat, the only bit of color in his charming black and white  illustrations with a cityscape filled with all sorts of people and pets as they merge into a multitude of pink knitted hats in the Women's March of 2017. The hat, of course, is both a cozy cap with many possibilities and a metaphor for the march of January 21, 2017, just right for youngsters who will enjoy the adventures of the traveling hat along the way to its big day. This one is just right for International Women's Day in March. Share this one with Kobi Yamada's similarly themed What Do You Do With an Idea?

City Gardens: Florette by Anna Walker

When Mae's family moved to the city,
Mae wanted to bring her garden with her.

But there was no room
among the crowded buildings
for apple trees and daffodils.

Mae missed her greenery scenery, and she missed the many animals who shared the woods and the rolling fields of daisies and grasses.

The signs said KEEP OFF THE GRASS!

And the only wild animal was a angry-looking stone lion. Mae was lonely for the birds nesting in apple trees and for the cones and nuts she gathered in her treasure jar.

But the buildings are tall and gray, and the paving stones cover the streets and walkways.

Mae tries. She draws a garden in the courtyard with colored chalks--with butterflies, caterpillars, trees, birds, and beetles. But the gray rain soon washes them away. Inside, in Mae's room, with her crayons she turns the still unpacked moving boxes into blooming trees and flowers and sets up a picnic among them. But eventually the boxes must go, and that is the end of her garden.

Mae spies on the neighborhood with her binoculars and spots an empty space with trees and a swing. With her dog, her mother, and the baby in a stroller, Mae leads an expedition to the park. But it is paved with small stones. No grass.

But then Mae sees something--a familiar bird singing in an apple tree.

With her mom and dog trailing behind her, Mae follows the bird to a store seemingly filled with trees and ferns and flowers and vines. She looks wistfully through the big plate glass windows at the garden inside. It is so like her old out-of-doors. But the store is closed.

Still, growing from between the wall and sidewalk, Mae finds a small plant, and she gently takes it home to plant in her treasure jar.

With enough space for a plant to grow.

And little Mae's plant starts a movement, and soon potted plants crowd the windows and the courtyard below her building. Mae has her garden again, in Anna Walker's forthcoming Florette (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2018), and readers can rejoice that Mae has brought spring green to her neighborhood, blooming and putting down her own roots as well. Author and artist Anna Walker shows again that cityscapes can be green and alive, and her courtyard of hanging vines and evergreen endpapers are glowing and vibrant with her watercolored art.

Share this one with Peter A. Reynolds' Rose's Garden or Peter Brown's The Curious Garden.

Metro Elephant: Little Elliot Big City by Mike Curato

LITTLE ELLIOT LOVED LIVING IN A BIG CITY, BUT SOMETIMES IT WAS HARD BEING SMALL IN SUCH A SMALL PLACE.

HE HAD TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO GET STEPPED ON ON THE SUBWAY PLATFORM.

STILL, ELLIOT ENJOYED THE LITTLE THINGS.

It's not easy being a very small spotted elephant in the Big Apple. But Little Elliot takes pleasure in his snug little home, the excitement of the skyscrapers and the thronging sidewalks, and his daily strolls, looking at the wonderful things in the windows downtown. He bravely takes the subway even though he's only knee high to all the people in the crowd.

But Elliot's greatest longing is to have one of those glorious cupcakes in the bakery window. And though he holds his money high in his trunk and jumps up as high as he can, the counterman never notices him among the crowd buying pastries.

But then one day he meets someone who is smaller, much smaller than he is.

"HELLO, MOUSE. WHAT'S WRONG?" ASKED ELLIOT.

"I'M TRYING TO REACH SOME FOOD, BUT I'M TOO SMALL!" SAID MOUSE. "AND I'M SO VERY HUNGRY!"

Suddenly Elliot sees a small ally in the solution to his cupcake problem, in Mike Curato's fantasy story of friendship in the big city, Little Elliot, Big City (Henry Holt and Company, 2014). Elliot is a small polka-dotted toy elephant who goes surprisingly unnoticed in the hubbub of big city streets. Observing the metro scene is the chief charm of this book. Curato's big city has been aptly compared to Edward Hopper's cityscapes, and his muted palette and his portrayal of a small toy elephant, with the body language of a toddler, roaming a retro metropolis, provides a Paddington sort of charm to this old-fashioned story. The author pictures Elliot devising ways to reach the sink in his apartment, making his miniature way down to the sidewalk from his brownstone home, and, like a kid in a candy shop, admiring the goodies in his neighborhood bakery, al in delightful illustrations which create a warm and cozy ambiance to set off Curato's sweet story of friendship found (and cupcake shared).

Shaggy Dog Story: The Deep Deep Puddle by Mary Jessie Parker

THROUGH THE LONG NIGHT AND THE EARLY MORNING, THE RAIN FELL.

A PUDDLE...
A DEEP, DEEP PUDDLE SWELLS AND STRETCHES ACROSS THE CITY  STREET.

ONE SHAGGY DOG, SOGGY FROM THE RAIN,
WANDERS AND SNEEZES A LITTLE TOO CLOSE TO THE EDGE OF DEEP DEEP PUDDLE....

AND GLUB, GLUB, GLUB.... 

As the already waterlogged pooch sinks deeper and deeper, two curious stray cats approach to peer into the puddle, and...

You guessed it! Glub times two and the felines join the dog, sinking into the deep.

These three are soon joined by three thirsty squirrels, four pecking pigeons, and five schoolkids running to beat the late bell.  All sink together into the amazing puddle's depths.

Six tourists, tangled in their camera straps, stumble and trip into the watery wasteland, followed in turn by seven yellow taxis, and eight street vendors, with their pushcarts, vans, and tinkling ice cream trucks, take the plunge.  Next nine robbers on the lam with their bags of loot, looking backward for pursuers, step right into the puddle.  Down, down they sink,, greenbacks floating away from their grasping hands.  The tourists try to snap photos with their phones or cameras of the action, while the vendors reach to retrieve their floating wares, the dog dog-paddles after the squirrels and the cats do their best swimming strokes in pursuit of the pigeons.  It's a big muddle of a  puddle!

At last ten police, tracking the robbers, arrive to cordon off the puddle and eleven tank trucks arrive to drain the puddle with their twelve long suction hoses.  Away goes the water, and the police collar the malefactors, the vendors rearrange their wares, the tourists smooth their hairdos and straighten  their damp clothes, looking a bit foolish for themselves, while the cats, pigeons, and squirrels hurry to leave the scene of their dunking.  All's well that ends well, right?

Well, there's still that soaking-wet, soggy, shaggy dog.  And you know just what dogs do when they're wet....!

Mary Jessica Parker takes puddle jumping to new, er, depths in her new deluge dilemma, The Deep Deep Puddle (Dial Books, 2013).  There are plenty of Glub, Glub, Glubs  to go around in this unique counting book with an unsuspected but satisfying ending, but artist Deborah Zemke's clever and comic illustrations of a passel of city dwellers taking the plunge really take the puddle prize.  There is plenty of humorous action in that puddle for dedicated detail spotters in this silly and fantastical city story.