OUR GREEN CITY

This panoramic, morning-to-bedtime city tour presents an urban environment sustainably tooled to help all its inhabitants thrive.

An omniscient narrator introduces readers to the city’s modes of transportation, energy resources, and commercial neighborhood as well as its many places to garden and play. Larmour’s charming, digitally finished watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations present mainly bird’s-eye (and occasional worm’s-eye) views, but she also shows readers a rain garden, the veggie-rich kitchen of a multiracial family, and a stream teeming with wildlife. Pictures brim with examples of a community focused on renewable energy, from a charging station to a clothesline; a green roof to solar panels and wind turbines. Families might well envy the thriving “green classroom,” the playground with tree-spanning bridges, and community garden. The kid-friendly text for each double-page spread ends with a question, inviting enhanced interaction with the pictures. Questions range from the open-ended (“What games will you play?”) to the specific (“Can you spot a special visitor sipping from the zinnias?”). A final spread suggests “More Ways To Be Green,” such as a compost bin, a rain barrel, and a window box herb garden. People depicted vary in terms of skin tone. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Exemplifying urban diversity and ecological harmony, this city will garner return visits from green-keen readers.