RSS
Home
20 Best New York City Stories, Ages 3 to 8
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Children's librarians from the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library, and Queens Library selected these 20 much-loved books for ages 3 to 8. Here are the books, in alphabetical order by title. (Descriptions from Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist and independent sources.)
1. Abuela by Arthur Dorros, illustrated by Elisa Kleven
Rosalba is "always going places" with her grandmother, Abuela . During one of their bird-feeding outings to the park, Rosalba wonders aloud, "What if I could fly?" Thus begins an excursion through the girl's imagination as she soars high above the tall buildings and buses of Manhattan, over the docks and around the Statue of Liberty with Abuela in tow. Each stop of the glorious journey evokes a vivid memory for Rosalba's grandmother and reveals a new glimpse of the woman's colorful ethnic origins. Dorros's text seamlessly weaves Spanish words and phrases into the English narrative (Publisher’s Weekly)
2. The Adventures of Taxi Dog by Debra and Sal Barracca, illustrated by Mark Buehner
"My name is Maxi, / I ride in a taxi / Around New York City all day." This rhythmic beginning sets the tone for the beguiling tale of a former stray dog. Jim, a taxi driver, finds Maxi in a park, takes him home and feeds him and, from then on, takes his new friend with him to work every day. Maxi loves the sights, the sounds and even the occasional emergencies--but most of all he loves Jim, who saved him from the streets. Jim is surprised when he begins receiving big tips, but readers--and this canny canine--know the reason why. The Barraccas' narrative so perfectly echoes Maxi's jaunty attitude that children might suppose that being a New York taxi dog is the best job in the world. (Publisher’s Weekly)
3. Black Cat by Christopher Meyers
An unseen narrator follows a lone black cat posing the refrain, "Where is your home?" in this ingenious tour of an urban landscape. If Myers's montage illustrations for Harlem paid homage to its people and history, here the mixed media images revere the starkness and beauty of the city streets themselves. As the stealthy feline, subtly comprised of dark fabric swatches with delicate patterns, makes its way down to the subways and up to the rooftops, the creature moves gracefully and purposefully. A Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book (Publisher’s Weekly)
4. Down in the Subway by Miriam Cohen, illustrated by Melanie Hope Greenberg
A routine summer ride on the subway is transformed into a brief, toe-tapping Caribbean holiday in Cohen's (Will I Have a Friend?) animated tale. But Greenberg's (Aunt Lilly's Laundromat) gouache art, with its electric hues and primitive style, supplies the bulk of the book's energy. The artist fluidly captures the ample magic that emanates from the multicolored straw bag of a friendly island woman dressed in native garb (Publisher’s Weekly)
5. The Gingerbread Boy by Richard Egielski
Oven-hot delectable (but prideful) doughboy dashes through the city streets, chased by a growing group of hungry New Yorkers until he's snapped up by a fox in Central Park. (School Library Journal)
6. The House on 88th Street by Bernard Waber
In the first Lyle the Crocodile story, the bright green reptile occupies a bathtub in a New York City brownstone. Though frightened at first, the Primm family is won over by their housemate.
7. I Stink! by Kate and Jim McMullan
A rowdy, ravenous New York City garbage truck is the unlikely and thoroughly engaging narrator…Know what I do when you’re asleep?" asks the brazen vehicle, "Eat your TRASH, that's what." The perspective then shifts so that readers look outside from within the truck's tail end, as garbage bags hurl through the air and land inside its "hopper." As the truck rolls around town, ingesting garbage, he saucily asks, "Did I wake you? Too bad!" (Publisher’s Weekly)
8. Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems
Knuffle Bunny returns, but this time he has a doppelganger. Trixie is off to school, and things are going well enough—until she notices that Sonja is holding her own Knuffle Bunny. Arrgh! The afternoon results in dueling bunnies, which are confiscated by the teacher. Happily, they are returned at the end of the day, but at 2:30 a.m. realization hits: the bunny Trixie is sleeping with is not her own. Despite parental protestations, phone calls are placed, bunnies are exchanged, and the girls, bonded during the trauma, become best friends. (Booklist)
9. The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift, illustrated by Lynd Ward
"Once upon a time a little lighthouse was built on a sharp point of the shore by the Hudson River. It was round and fat and red. It was fat and red and jolly. And it was VERY, VERY PROUD. Behind it lay New York City where the people lived..." A true story, timeless tale about size and what matters, lighting up readers' hearts and imaginations since it was first published in 1942.
10. Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky
Little Toot is a scamp – an immature child of a boat who would rather play than work to the dismay of his family. His playfulness gets him in trouble, but he gets a chance to redeem himself, saving the day when no one else can.
11. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordecai Gerstein
This effectively spare, lyrical account chronicles Philippe Petit's tight rope walk between Manhattan's World Trade Center towers in 1974. (Publisher’s Weekly)
12. Max Found Two Sticks by Brian Pinckney
On a day when Max doesn't feel like talking to anyone, a strong breeze shakes two heavy twigs to the ground in front of his brownstone home. Picking them up, the young African-American boy begins to beat out a rhythm that imitates the sound of pigeons startled into flight. Soon he is tapping out the beat of everything around him-rain against the windows, the chiming of church bells, and the thundering sound of a train on its tracks. The snappy text reverberates with the rhythmic song of the city, and Pinkney's swirling, scratchboard-oil paintings have a music of their own. (School Library Journal)
13. My Chinatown: One Year in Poems by Kam Mak
A glimpse at New York’s Chinatown, organized chronologically through the seasons.
14. Olivia by Ian Falconer
Inimitable protagonist Olivia engaged in a variety of activities in 13 black-and-white vignettes, using red sparingly-for a hammer handle, a yo-yo, a ball, a mixing bowl spatula and a jump rope-as she progresses from energetic to spent. The few full scenes amplify the deadpan humor: a beach setting allows for the full impact of Olivia's spectacular sandcastle model of the Empire State Building; a full-bleed black-and-white image of a tutu- and tiara-clad Olivia bowing to unseen fans answers the narrator's question "What could she be thinking?" as she stares at her favorite painting, featuring Degas's ballerinas, in a museum. (Publisher’s Weekly)
15. The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin, illustrated by Marc Simont
"It is almost Friday night. Outside, the dark is getting darker," and here and there around the city ninety-two men and thirteen women are getting dressed to go to work. First they bathe and put on their underwear. Then they don special black-and-white apparel. Then when the one hundred and five people are completely ready, each takes a musical instrument and travels to midtown. There, at 8:30 tonight, they will work together: playing. A delightful and unusual inside view of one way an orchestra prepares
16. Subway by Anastasia Suen, illustrated by Karen Katz
In brief, rhyming verses, an African-American child describes her ride on the subway, telling how she and her mother enter through a turnstile, board the train, transfer, and arrive at their final destination. She details the speed of the train, the music heard at a station, the darkness of the tunnels, and the motion of the car. The rhythmic language captures the feel of her journey and a repeated refrain invites readers to participate in the telling of the story. (School Library Journal)
17. Take Me Out to the Ballgame by Jack Norworth, illustrated by Alec Gillman
Baseball lovers of all ages will enjoy the big, bold, pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations that accompany and elucidate Norworth's famous chorus. To illustrate the well-known song, Gillman has chosen the fifth game of the 1947 World Series, played in Brooklyn between the Dodgers and the Yankees. (School Library Journal)
18. The Tale of Pale Male: A True Story by Jeanette Winter
A heartening story, this attractive picture book tells of a red-tailed hawk that makes a place for itself on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Working with acrylics on watercolor paper, Winter uses Easter-egg colors to frame her appealing cityscapes. She introduces the red-tailed hawk as a type before launching into a nicely abbreviated version of a story that may seem familiar to many adults: a hawk (this one nicknamed Pale Male) makes a nest on the pigeon spikes of an apartment building. The "apartment people," as Winter refers to them, remove the nest, but protestors rally in support of the hawk, and Pale Male is eventually able to rebuild. (Booklist)
19. Uptown by Bryan Collier
A young boy provides a particularly inviting, personally guided tour of his uptown home, New York City's Harlem. The Metro-North railroad, chicken and waffles, shopping on 125th Street, the Apollo Theater, jazz, and summer basketball games at the playground are all part of his neighborhood's charm (School Library Journal)
20. Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats
Story follows a young boy who would like to whistle but can’t. Peter goes about his day seeing others do it and trying … until at last he cracks the technique and whistles for his dog, Willie New York books Descriptions from Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal and Booklist
