City I Love - Book Review

This post was written as a Master's course assignment for Texas Woman's University.

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2009. CITY I LOVE. Illustrated by Marcellus Hall. New York, NY: Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 9780810983274.

2. BOOK SUMMARY
This collection of 18 poems by Lee Bennett Hopkins highlights cities from around the world and allows the reader to have an inside look into the special relationship that the author has with these great cities. With some rhyming poems, some song-like, a touch of onomatopoeia, and lots of humor, Hopkins takes the reader on a wild world tour. Hopkins uses consistent, eloquent details, such as "City's smallest store" to describe the hot dog cart in GET 'EM HERE, and "For streets will be filled with a magical M U S H"  to describe the quickly changing status of snow on the streets in SNOW CITY. 

This book, though filled with few words, provides an excellent example of maximizing word choice. The poems are filled with sounds, smells, activities at all hours of the day, alliteration, internal and external rhyme, repetition, and emotional impact. In SEAL AT THE ZOO, Hopkins lays out an array of good synonyms for young learners, such as "watch/look at/see" and "touch/and pet/and feel."

These poems are appealing to young people and adults as well, providing nostalgic moments, like playing in the runoff water from a fire hydrant, that almost everyone can relate to. Hopkins has a bit of a love affair with each city, and with cities in general, which is displayed through his affectionate (but not too sentimental) text.

Illustrations by Marcellus Hall add a great depth of character and charm to the many cities that the reader visits while exploring this book. Using vibrant colors, Hall captures the few imperative details of each highlighted city: the arch in St. Louis, the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, the Chrysler Building in New York City, flashing neon signs in Tokyo, etc. The illustrations convey to the audience the mood and attitude of each city and are a perfect complement to Hopkins' words.

3. POEM HIGHLIGHT
The poem I would like to highlight from this collection is an excerpt from SUBWAYS ARE PEOPLE, a favorite from the collection. Hopkins utilizes a great rhyme scheme and rhythm, and the poem seems to rock back and forth, like a subway in motion. 

As an educational activity to enhance the experience of listening to this poem aloud, I would ask children that are listening to, or reading this poem, to arrange their seats to be facing each other in a row, with some standing and some sitting, and have them rock back and forth to the motion of the words. Some children could also mimic the sound of the subway car's motion by gently tapping their palms to their legs, in unison, to establish the rhythm (tap tap, tap tap). This activity is a good example of learning how to listen carefully to the rhythm of a poem, either while reading it quietly or aloud.


SUBWAYS ARE PEOPLE

Subways are people-

   People standing
   People sitting
       People swaying to and fro
          Some in suits
          Some in tatters 
                 People I will never know.

                 Subways are people-

                                      Some with glasses
                                              Some without
                                                      Boy with smile
                                                      Girl with frown

    
                         People dashing
                            Steel flashing
Up and down and round the town.


(excerpt from SUBWAYS ARE PEOPLE, by Lee Bennett Hopkins)