My City Speaks

by Darren Lebeuf, Ashley Barron

Overview

A young girl’s exploration of the city she loves. A young girl and her father spend a day in the city, her city, traveling to the places they go together. As they do, the girl, who is visually impaired, describes what she senses in delightfully precise, poetic detail. Her city, she says, “pitters and patters, and drips and drains.” It’s both “smelly” and “sweet.” Her city also speaks, as it “dings and dongs and rattles and roars.” And sometimes, maybe even some of the best times, it just listens. A celebration of all there is to appreciate in our surroundings — just by paying attention!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781525304750
Publisher:	Kids Can Press
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	25 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Darren Lebeuf is an award-winning photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, with a background in design and visual communication. Darren has done numerous illustration projects for schools and charity organizations and also teaches illustration courses. He is also the author of My Forest Is Green and My Ocean Is Blue.;Ashley Barron has illustrated several picture books, including My Forest Is Green, My Ocean Is Blue and Birthdays Around the World. She enjoys teaching art classes and presenting her books to libraries and schools. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her partner and their three cats.

Editorial Reviews

A celebration of city life's sounds, sensations, and faces.—Kirkus Reviews

A positive book featuring a blind character embracing her full life.—Booklist

It's a sensory delight, this one.—Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Though simple at first glance, My City Speaks is a nuanced and rich text that can be a great conversation starter on differently-abled people, the importance of paying attention, and the senses.—CM Magazine

From the Publisher

2021-07-27
A blind child introduces readers to their city en route to a violin recital.

Accompanied by their dad, they step out, white cane in hand. In simple, declarative sentences dotted with vivid adjectives and verbs, they narrate the many ways their city “speaks.” “It rushes and stops / and waits and goes” as they navigate a pedestrian crossing. It “grows” as they stroke a sunflower and construction workers build nearby. It’s “busy” as they feed a flock of pigeons and “relaxed” as they lounge with their dad on a park bench. “Sometimes it’s smelly,” they note as they pass a dumpster, and “sometimes it’s sweet” as they sample ice cream flavors. It “speaks with whispers and giggles and sometimes meows” as they ride a subway crowded with racially and ethnically diverse passengers. As they cross one more busy street, it “also speaks with hasty honks, impatient beeps, distant chimes, reliable rumbles, speedy sirens and urgent clangs.” “My city speaks,” they repeat, joining fellow musicians on an outdoor stage, “and sometimes it just listens” as they serenade an appreciative crowd. In a warm finale, the narrator and their dad embrace, beaming. With cheerful, doll-like human figures, Barron’s bright illustrations highlight the quiet tenderness between father and child—a rarely represented duo in books featuring disabled characters. The narrator and their dad have brown skin. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A celebration of city life’s sounds, sensations, and faces. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews