New York City History for Kids

Gr 4-6–Taking an all-too-common approach, Panchyk largely confines his chronicle to the history of Manhattan–according the city’s four other boroughs only brief mentions–and aside from scattered statistical references covers nearly all of the last three decades on a single spread. Still, from the retreat of the glaciers (colorfully if arbitrarily dubbed New York City’s “first visitors”) to 9/11, he hits the high and low spots while providing a clear and succinct picture of the course and causes of the city’s growth along with a parade of prominent figures, historical and cultural highlights, architectural feats, riots, and disasters. As in other volumes in this series, the value-added sidebar projects in each chapter range from “probably salvageable” to awful: given a single example, readers are invited to draw a Gibson Girl, for instance; from a schematic overhead view to construct a model of Fort George from clay and toothpicks; and with the blithe instruction to “Come up with a title and write a song of your own” to “Be a Tin Pan Alley Songwriter.” But the main narrative is well stocked with both passages from contemporary documents and photos or other period illustrations and adds substantial amounts of detail to Richard Platt’s more visual New York City (Kingfisher, 2010).–John Peters, Children’s Literature Consultant, New York City