In the City: Our Scrapbook of Souvenirs Book

The city is full of surprises! After exploring the underground sewers during a downpour and climbing inside the giantest scientist, these fun characters smell something stinky at the market and sneak up on a big barracuda in the aquarium. Harvey’s distinctive and engaging bird’s-eye perspective of the city features an incredible array of hilarious human activity in all its busy and bustling urban glory, as well as quieter moments in the early morning, and the bright lights of the night streets. This time the family is collecting memorabilia from their big city trip in a souvenir scrapbook, and handwritten diary notes appear along the side of each spread—drawing attention to specific details to look for in the illustrations.

Kirkus Reviews

Three siblings take turns describing their family's trip to the city, with 14 panoramic pictures. Text runs down the left side of each two-page spread, in a two-and-a-half-inch column that looks as though it was printed by hand. First, Frankie describes going over the bridge, which looms above the city, in a big shuttle bus; Henry talks about all the underground networks, including the subway that they ride in; Penny is amazed by all the bustle and commerce of the city square. The family goes on to an enormous department store, the zoo, the esplanade, the aquarium, etc., before boarding the shuttle for home again. The stars of Harvey's book are his intricate illustrations, in dip pen and watercolor. There's a whiff of Where's Waldo? in their complexity, with myriad implied story lines and literally hundreds of people in some pictures. He even manages to sprinkle some pictures into the columns of text. Endlessly entertaining for all ages, as well as subtly educational. (Picture book. 5-9)