I Love My City by France Desmarais and Richard Adam, illustrated by Yves Dumont (Pajama Press, March 2023) is a nonfiction middle grade explanation and illustration of what makes a city a city. Given the increasing urbanization of the world (apparently 55% of people live in cities!), this book provides a much needed look at the history of urban development, as well as the many complex issues that designing and running a city needs.


The highlights of this book include explanations of the many systems that coordinate in a city: water and waste treatment and care, community workers and leaders, essential services for a city, and potential hazards of an urban center, with potential green solutions. The illustrations include numerous diagrams and friendly illustrations, some of which have a clever urban cat hiding in the scene. I was most fascinated by waste water treatment plant system diagram, since about ten years ago I joined my son on a field trip of the local center and it was a total gross but fascinating experience.

I Love My City is a solid reference book for students studying urbanization or any of the aspects mention herein. Although many children would not be interested in reading it straight through, with such a readable ton, the many fact bubbles with statistics and global facts are truly interesting and some children (especially interested future civil engineers!) would love to read it through to get the overview and information that does interest them.

Note: I received a digital review copy of I Love My City.

I love when I can learn new things through children’s books. This book taught me a lot of new information on cities…their organization, how they are built and structured, the planning that goes into building a city with a growing population, and much more. The graphics are bright and colorful and will appease to young children (I would suggest upper elementary). I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this book for my classroom!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! I will be posting a review on my instagram lizzies_little_library_

I received an electronic ARC from Pajama Press through NetGalley.
Readers learn historical and current day information about cities around the world. The authors present this information in at an elementary reader's level for broad appeal. The illustrations are colorful and realistic and support the facts provided.
Well done to offer information and allow readers to process and decide what more they want to learn.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful children's book. It does a great job of explaining information about cities and the pictures are adorable!