Friday, April 20, 2007

Reading oodles of guidebooks to New York and keeping up with the city through many publications: dailies, monthlies and blogs to present the best of what’s available in town on myurbansherpa.net, I was delighted to find the city most wonderfully captured in Miroslav Sasek’s book, This is New York, published in 1960. Happily, the wonderfully colorful things about New York that impressed Sasek then are still here to impress visitors today.


This is New York, Miroslav Sasek, c 1960

This is New York was a gift for my little one on her 4th birthday. Reading this together reminded me that one’s impressions are often filtered through childhood perceptions. So if you are coming in and out of New York with your children, and hoping to give them a wonderful framework through which to view the city – I recommend starting with This is New York.

Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey, Maira Kalman, c 2002

In this genre, you will also want to read Maira Kalman’s book, Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey. The Harvey is a fireboat that came to the rescue on September 11, 2001, by helping put out the fires at the World Trade Center. I couldn’t imagine a way to put the tragedy of 9/11 into a children’s book but Kalman does it. I can’t read the book without crying at the end – because the Harvey embodies the hero in all of us. And though children reading this book now would not have been born on September 11, 2001, this is a wonderful book to compliment a conversation about the tragedy that is as much a part of New York City’s present and future, as her history.

Olivia, Ian Falconer, c 2000

Olivia is a gem. Her love of wardrobe changes, opera, and painting walls is reminiscent of my older daughter’s younger days, and my little one’s present. Olivia lives in NY and vacations in the Hamptons. She is a sophisticated girl and offers a peek at how New York City preschoolers live.

Eloise, Hilary Knight, c1955

Eloise is the most reknown New York City child in literature. She is a heroine for her ability to make lemonade from a dismal situation. She lives in the Plaza with her English nanny, dog, and turtle, schooled occasionally by a young Andover student. There is a notable absence of a father who is never mentioned, and a mother, who occupies herself with shopping, vacationing and dating. Sadly, this is a common childhood for New York children of means. So while the book is entertaining, and Eloise is triumphant in her success at entertaining herself, this I hope, will be a story your children cannot relate to.