I do not think I was halfway through The City Sings Green & Other Poems About Welcoming Wildlife by Erica Silverman and illustrated by Ginnie Hsu before I knew this was probably going to be my top April read (and yes, it is only a week into the month) and probably in my top picks for the year (and yes, it’s only four months old). The story is actually poems, but don’t let that stop you from reading! No, these are not artsy-fartsy ones! These are clever, cute, fun and educational. (And don’t let the word educational throw you either, remember I said fun, too.)
Each poem covers cities from New York to Illinois to London to New Zealand to Singapore to India and even Canada (plus a whole heck of a lot of places in between) shows how animals and humans are finding a way to live together. Of course, at first humans said things like, “Oh so the beavers live here? That’s cool, but I think I’ll use this place to make the Bronx.” And then when those Pesky Us realized that sure, playgrounds are fun but so would be seeing an owl that is practically extinct in this particular Californian area, they said they wanted to make something for the animals instead. (So school kids, with the help of their school and environmentalist groups, made an animal playground).
Nowadays, there are BEAVERS in THE BRONX! (Well, in this river.) They are swimming up and down, having a damn good time. And there are New Zealand penguins who know how to use a down under 80-foot tunnel under the highways to get from “here to there” in their territory (I know some humans who couldn’t figure THAT one out!) And so much more (I stopped with the penguins and there were about ten more pages to go so I could write this up. But I went back to it and finished, then edited my review). Science and English mixed together is a great way to learn. You get the facts but in a way that is accessible for everyone.
Then there are the illustrations. They are really sweet, funny (come on OTTERS people!) and not overly detailed, but have the right amount of goodies to push the point home. The colors are my favorite part as they set the tone, plus keep things lighter. The text is sometimes wrapped into the art, but usually it floats along the page. There are extras galore to this though available, read via an online reader copy.