ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
PICTURE BOOKS
Downing, Julie

Night in the City

40 pp. | Holiday/Porter | March, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9780823452064 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780823455188 $11.99
(1) K-3 While a child gets ready for bed, a father gets ready for work--as do other night-shift workers in the city. Readers follow the dad (a nurse) and eight others: a taxi driver, a firefighter, an emergency dispatcher, a janitor, a security guard, a hotel manager, an on-location film tech, and a baker. Spreads with multiple panels or apartment windows highlight people at home and at work; in busier scenes the colorfully depicted main characters easily stand out. Nifty details are everywhere, and crisscrossing narratives add tons of fun. Wisely, the quiet text lets the pictures tell the stories, allowing viewers to discover the connections on their own: the hotel manager welcomes a guest whose dog gets loose and runs down the street to the bakery, where firefighters (alerted by the dispatcher) have just put out a fire; an expecting couple hails the taxi driver, and later the nurse tends to new mother and baby, while outside their hospital window the baker holds the lost dog and hails the cab driver, who takes the pup back to its owner, an actor who's on a set with the film tech. Phew! Fittingly, the work-night wraps up with a scene outside the cozy bakery, where each worker, before heading home, can be spotted inside or out. The characters' diversity nicely reflects the big-city setting: the nurse is a Black man, the firefighter is a woman, the dispatcher uses a wheelchair, and the hotel manager wears a hijab.
Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

RELATED 

PICTURE BOOKS

Born Ready
by Patterson, Jodie
PICTURE BOOKS

The House of Grass and Sky
by Ray, Mary Lyn
PICTURE BOOKS

The Dog's Gardener
by Storms, Patricia
PICTURE BOOKS

And I Paint It
by Kephart, Beth
PICTURE BOOKS

Poem in My Pocket
by Tougas, Chris
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?