EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT AT NONNA’S HOUSE

A cheery tale in child-bright colors offers a city vs. country theme. A little boy and his mom take a taxi from their city apartment to the train and then to Nonna and Pop-Pop’s house in the country, where “the whole blue sky reaches all the way down to the flower beds.” In the country, he rides a tractor, not an elevator, and there’s no deli on the corner, but there are cows. In the city, flowers come from the corner shop, but at Nonna’s, they grow beside the kitchen door. He relates in the sweetest of language how there’s no rushing for school and work at Nonna’s, there’s always time for making pancakes. But when he gets back home to the city, he can hold the moon in his hands from his city window, just like he could at Nonna’s. Nakata’s fresh, dappled watercolors perfectly suit this story, with its apple-cheeked figures, flower-covered countryside, and lively cityscape that looks, with its yellow taxis and glimpse of the Empire State Building, just like a happy New York City. (Picture book. 3-7)