NEW YORK, NEW YORK!

From the American Museum of Natural History (A) to the Bronx Zoo (Z), an alphabetical exploration of places to visit and famous sites in the Big Apple. The folk-art paintings are bright and colorful but are accompanied by short, uninspired verse and factoids. The most successful letters or places to see are the double spreads. Yankee Stadium (Y) is filled with fans set against a starry night. Unfortunately, the author states that it seats 70,000—untrue since the 1970’s renovation. The Plaza Hotel (P) stands majestic, but oddly for a children’s book does not include Eloise in its list of famous visitors. The Brooklyn Bridge (B), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (M) and Times Square (T) get grand double spreads while the one for Harlem awkwardly conjoins a brownstone to the Apollo Theater and the Union Square Greenmarket (U) is disjointed next to the Washington Square Arch (V for Greenwich Village). While fun for browsing, especially when turning the book on end for the Empire State Building (E), young readers would be better advised to visit Robert Neubecker’s Wow! City! (2004) for some real Big Apple excitement. (Picture book. 3-7)