City I Love by Lee Bennett Hopkins

    The book City I love is a book of poems written by a single poet, Lee Bennett Hopkins. The poems have an overarching theme of life in a “big” city such as New York City. The poems illustrate the cliché ideas of a big city such as tall buildings, little to no space for children to play outside, the constant loud noise and hustle and bustle, as well as many others. Each poem highlights different cities and their specific cliché. Each poem is accompanied by watercolor illustrations created by Marcellus Hall. The book does not include a table of contents or index, but each poem is titled.

    The poems include a mix of rhyming, repeating, and imagery. The author uses repetition to bring the reader back to the topic. In Subway are People Hopkins keeps repeating the word “people”. He goes from talking about the people to the subway and illustrates that without the people there would be no need for the subway. In the poem From the Ground Hopkins describes what the people are doing on top of the skyscraper that they are building. “balance on beams, dangle on derricks” (Lee Bennett Hopkins and Hall 2009). The adjectives paint a picture for the reader helping them understand the intensity of building a skyscraper. Hopkins also uses rhyming to keep the reader interested. The rhyming is fun and light, appropriate for the age level that the book is intended for.

    The author uses the illustrations to pull the reader in and help gain insight into what the author is describing. The inside front and back covers show a map of the earth and use points on the map to highlight cities illustrated and described in the poems. The cities include Tokyo, New York City, Delhi, and Cairo just to name a few. In the poem Mother’s Plea, the illustrations show the sound of the cars driving by with the use of lines coming from the traffic. The point of view is from a tall building in Paris looking down on the traffic. The illustrator also makes use of lines in Sparrow and Get ‘em Here to show sound and music and steam respectively. The watercolor illustrations capture the imagination of the reader and draw them into the poetry. The poems are placed on the page in a way that does not distract from the illustrations. Most poems are placed in white space and use space and formatting to create breaks and rhythm.

    The poems are consistent in quality and stay on the topic of living in each specific city. The poems can stimulate curiosity in children who do not have any experience living in or visiting a populous city such as New York City. The poems can also stimulate feelings of shared experience for children who do live in a populous city or have visited one. That can be appealing to the children that may come across this book and read the poems. The poems are short so not a long attention span is needed. The poems can show different experiences from their own and create curiosity. The different cities' illustrations can intrigue those reading the poems and looking at the illustrations. This could create interest in cultures and countries different from their own.

Kite

New kite

blue-white

        flitters

        twirls

        tumbles

        twitters

like

a

young bird

in

new morning’s

wide-awake

city

sky.

                        (Lee Bennett Hopkins and Hall 2009)

    Hopkins in the poem Kite uses imagery to describe how the kite is flying through the sky. The kite is described as a young bird that flitters, twirls, tumbles, and twitters. The illustration shows a blue and white kite as it is in flight in the city.

    The wind would be a great topic for story time because kites are typically flown on a windy day. Kite would be a great poem to incorporate into the topic. I would introduce story time by standing in front of a box fan that is on and pretending that I am being blown away. I would then introduce the poem by talking about fun things to do on a windy day such as flying a kite. I would then read the poem, Kite. I would read books about wind or a windy day such as Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day by Teddy Slater or Windblown by Édouard Manceau. The song Let’s go Fly a Kite from the Disney Movie Mary Poppins would be a great song to include to get the audience up and moving around. I would do a kite-making craft that uses plastic straws and tissue paper. (link here) I would pre-cut out the straws and tissue paper large enough for one kite and have all the supplies in a kit or sorted on a table. Then the straws are glued to the tissue paper and then the tissue paper is cut next to the straws. I would also have precut string.

References:

Lee Bennett Hopkins, and Marcellus Hall. 2009. City I Love. New York: Abrams Books For Young Readers In Association With The Field Museum.