THE BIG APPLE

Yesterday I wrote a post on the book JOHNNY APPLESEED, illustrated by gifted folk artist Kathy Jakobsen.  Today I'd like to highlight another stunning book, this one illustrated and written by Ms. Jakobsen... about the "Big Apple", where she lived for eight years.

MY NEW YORK is both fact-filled and F-U-N! On the inside front and back cover of the original book (published in 1993) is a folksy map of New York City, dominated by Manhattan, with the city's leading sights pinpointed - including Central Park and the World Trade Center. There are also two harbor views seen from the Staten Island Ferry, one of a sunset, the other a spectacular show of fireworks exploding over the tall ships, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the New York skyline -- prominently dominated by the Twin Towers.

PAYING HOMAGE IN THE NEW EDITION
About the first edition, and its images of the World Trade Center, Kathy said, ''It's become a positive link to the tragedy. It's become a memory.'' When Jakobsen's publishers asked her to do a new edition for the book's 10th anniversary, she faced the sad dilemma of how to paint the skyline minus the Twin Towers. In the harbor scene of the 2003 anniversary edition, she painted two columns of light where the Twin Towers used to be.

This book is a visual treat. The 10th anniversary edition also includes 7 foldout scenes and 23 new paintings. We learn from a little girl named Becky about The Big Apple in all its splendor, through a chatty letter she is writing to a friend who will soon visit her from the Midwest.

Becky lives near the NY City Public Library (remember the Library Lions?) and gives us an amazing tour of Manhattan, as she visits places with her family and friends. If you've ever been, do you miss it as much as I do...Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, Radio City Music Hall, the Museum of Natural History, the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings, FAO Schwarz - they're all here in this spectacular book!  At the end there are fun facts and a reader challenge.

MORE BOOKS ABOUT THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS:
This is New York by Miroslav Sasek (originally published in 1960)

New York, New York: The Big Apple from A to Z, by Laura Krauss Melmed, illustrated by Frane Lessac

I can't resist adding:  Stuart Little (New York, through the eyes of a Mouse) by E. B. White, illustrated by Garth Williams.

Do you have any favorite children's books about New York that I neglected to mention? I found quite an extensive list you can choose from, HERE, on a page from "The New York Society Library".

FUN MOUSE STORIES (THAT AREN'T ABOUT MICKEY!)

Living in Orange County, it's hard not to immediately think of Disney when questioned about popular mouse stories. But I was able to reach back into the deep recesses of my Mommy Memory and come up with some other "famouse" mice that were our favorites from the literary world...

MOUSE TALES by Arnold Lobel. Great transition into chapter books. (ages 4-8) Seven mouse brothers can't sleep and ask their "Papa" to tell them a story. He tells them seven stories, one for each boy! Another by Lobel: MOUSE SOUP - a mouse is caught by a weasel in order to become the main ingredient for the weasel's "mouse soup". But the mouse tells the weasel that the soup won't taste good unless he stirs some stories into it. You'll read four stories the mouse relates while he devises a plan to stay out of the soup pot. (Think Scheherazade with ears and a long tail!)
BRODERICK by Edward Ormondroyd, with illustrations by John Larrecq. (ages 4-8) I racked my brain and finally remembered this book! It's about a mouse who takes his tongue-depressor-surfboard out into the world. Out of print - you'll have to look at the library for this one, and it's worth it! Cute pen and ink drawings.
STUART LITTLE by E.B. White/Illustrated by Garth Williams. (ages 8 & up). Follow Stuart (a little, talking mouse born to a human family in New York city) on a journey of adventures as he proves himself to be a noble mouse - a humorous, melancholy, touching fantasy tale.
THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE (series) by Beverly Cleary. (published in 1965, ages 8 & up). Ralph Mouse has led an ordinary life in the knothole of a hotel room, until a family comes with their son, Keith, who has a toy motorcycle. Kids love what happens when curiosity overcomes caution and Ralph decides he must go for a ride!
BEN AND ME: AN ASTONISHING LIFE OF BENJMIN FRANKLIN BY HIS GOOD MOUSE AMOS, by Robert Lawson (ages 8 & up). The "biography" of Ben Franklin told with wit and wisdom by his mouse, Amos (a less-than-humble rodent).
REDWALL (series) by Brian Jacques. (see my entries about Redwall and Brian Jacques, here).

PICTURE BOOKS (ages 4-8):
SHY CHARLES By Rosemary Wells
MOUSE PAINT by Ellen Stoll Walsh
MOUSE MESS by Linnea Asplind Riley
NORMAN THE DOORMAN by Don Freeman
A MOUSE TOLD HIS MOTHER by Bethany Roberts
SEVEN BLIND MICE by Ed Young
THE GRUFFALO by Julia Donaldson
AMOS AND BORIS by William Steig
ANATOLE by Eve Titus
ALEXANDER AND THE WIND-UP MOUSE By Leo Lionni
WHOSE MOUSE ARE YOU? by Robert Kraus
TOWN MOUSE COUNTRY MOUSE by Jan Brett
BENJAMIN AND BUMPER TO THE RESCUE by Molly Coxe