Pop-up New York

Gr 2–5—Four spreads of fabulous paper engineering feature two-sided pop-up images of skyscrapers, bridges, museums, and a sports complex, while illustrated flaps lift to reveal facts about transportation, parks and gardens, the New York Police Department, museums, zoos, famous residents, and more. Each spread also includes a "little book" that provides a few lines on city celebrities of yore, local sports teams, Manhattan Island, and children's books that take place in the Big Apple; a chunk of text on the featured area of the city; loads of informative captions; and a challenge to locate images in the book. The architectural sites are rendered in black line and colored in pastels, with splashes of color (see the jazzy "All Along 42nd Street" spread). Along with the well-known sights that residents and nonresidents alike will be looking for are some newer landmarks: One World Trade Center (the Freedom Tower), the High Line, and the 9/11 Memorial. The focus is on Manhattan, but there are a few nods to the outer boroughs (Bronx Zoo, Staten Island Ferry, the Queens Unisphere, and the Brooklyn Bridge). Delightful and edifying, but bound to take a beating if it leaves the library.—Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal