Metropolis

by Benoit Tardif

Perfect for the youngest armchair travelers, this wordbook primer uses brightly colored illustrations sprinkled with quirky humor to introduce thirty-two of the world's major metropolises. The cities span the globe, from San Francisco to Stockholm to Sydney, and each gets its own two-page spread filled with the iconic buildings, local delicacies, favorite pastimes, natural wonders and famous landmarks that make it unique. Simple descriptive words label the illustrations so that children can discover the many riches of these fascinating places, such as New York's Empire State Building, Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, Athens's Parthenon and Bangkok's pad thai, to name a few. Also included are the city's country, language and population. A world map on the endpapers marks each city's location, providing context and geographical reference. Award-winning artist Benoit Tardif uses brilliant colors, a bold style and a touch of humor in his clever artwork that's sure to draw young children in for closer study. By collecting and presenting major cities this way, his book can help build global awareness, as it visually showcases the distinct differences as well as the many similarities between them all. It offers numerous opportunities for cross-curricular applications in the classroom, including in global studies, geography and language arts. With a wealth of information presented in such an engaging format, children will also want to independently peruse this book again and again. It's likely to inspire their curiosity about other faraway places and maybe even a desire to explore them someday!

Genres: Nonfiction, Picture Books, Geography, Childrens, Travel, Cities

72 pages, Hardcover

Published October 4, 2016

Reviews

[Leilani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth keeping to reread or as a reference.

[Danny Grafton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice illustrations of various world metropolis. The cities chosen for illustration are very west-centric. I have to wonder how the author can rationalize including Stockholm, Auckland, and Zurich, while leaving out Shanghai, Delhi, Karachi, and Tehran.

[Stephanie Bange · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even the youngest of listeners hears about many of these cities around the world -- oftentimes in books or on the TV news. Begin armchair traveling with them and "visit" major cities on six of the 7 continents. With a world map on the endsheets of the book, start your around the world tour continent by continent. Each city is given a two-page spread, with illustrations of some of the iconic sights found there.

This book was originally published in French in 2015.

[Audrey | Adapter au secondaire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnifique album présentant les métropoles du monde. Les illustrations colorées de Benoit Tardif nous amènent à voyager dans les plus belles villes du monde tout en nous faisant découvrir les emblèmes de ces dernières.

Aucun texte ne figure dans ce livre, sauf les noms pour désigner chacun des endroits. C’est parfait pour aborder les métropoles, les monuments célèbres et les attraits touristiques d’un point de vue visuel tout à fait original.

[Wlitner]

I hope this book sparks a love of travel in my boys and that I get to travel with them to all these cities, but especially New York so they’ll see there is only ONE Empire State Building and it is not every taller than an apartment building building they see.

[Vitor Neiva · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a really interesting and amusing way to check some sights in each of the cities, but they could've added some other cities as well. I think that cities from the "third world" weren't actually well explored.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snapshots of big cities featuring unique illustrations.

[Rana Adham · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are spectacular. Wonderful book ✈️

[Angelica Moranelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Metropolis non vi fa subito venire in mente il film? A me sì. In questo libro, però, l’atmosfera è esattamente contraria a quella che si respira nella cupa distopia di Fritz Lang. Intanto, è pieno di colori. E di voglia di conoscere, scoprire, superare barriere, volare. Sì, perché in un momento storico in cui tendiamo ad alzare muri e a rintanarci in casa per paura che il mondo ci esploda sotto i piedi, ecco arrivare Benoit Tardif a raccontarci, con immagini e poche, pochissime parole, quanto è bello viaggiare e quanto è importante conoscere gli altri.

Cosa ho trovato all’interno di questo bellissimo libro?

Prima di tutto, come vi dicevo, tanti colori. Anzi, i Colori: blu, giallo, rosso, verde, bianco, nero. Con qualche tocco di arancione. Le illustrazioni di Benoit Tardif emergono dal foglio come rettangoli di colori piatti, stesi a contrasto l’uno accanto a l’altro, per creare solide immagini di vita, frontali e bidimensionali, la cui apparente semplicità nasconde una vasta e complessa concezione delle metropoli moderne.

Il racconto è affidato quasi esclusivamente al tratto pulito dell’illustratore e all’uso meraviglioso dei colori, ma vi basterà sfogliare questa preziosa guida per rendervi conto che la semplicità è solo apparente. Essere concisi, del resto, è uno degli esercizi più difficili del mondo.

Com’è, per esempio, Montreal, Canada? Apprendiamo subito che conta 4 milioni di abitanti che parlano francese e inglese e che ci sono almeno 10 cose da fare/vedere. Per esempio, visitare la torre dell’orologio (45 m) o mangiare il panino con la carne affumicata, scalare il Mont Royal (234 m) e partecipare alla Festa dei tam-tam… e poi che altro? L’autore sembra voglia dirci: il resto tocca a te. Tocca a te informarti, io ti ho solo mostrato la strada. Ed è proprio così, credetemi: Benoit Tardif scaglia la pietra e nasconde la mano, indica una soglia da superare e poi lascia che sia il lettore a fare il resto.

E in effetti mi è venuta subito voglia di scoprire cosa fosse la festa dei tam-tam e di vederla dal vivo, prima o poi (clicca sul link per vedere un video dell’evento!)

Una guida illustrata e minimale, che con un solo colpo d’occhio saprà portarvi in giro per il mondo: sarete in grado di dire subito quale città vedreste volentieri, farete (come me) una lista delle prossime metropoli da visitare (anche se resterà solo una fantasia per i prossimi anni), sarà un piacere unico sentire scorrere sotto ile dita le pagine di questa guida sui generis, in cui le parole sono pochissime ma i contenuti moltissimi.

Un libro non per semplici turisti, ma per appassionati viaggiatori, che amano le cose belle, un libro per chi ama le scoperte e i cambiamenti, un libro perfetto in questo luminoso settembre in cui si fanno progetti e si sognano nuovi viaggi.

La recensione completa clicca qui

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[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool book with vivid, fun illustrations and facts about some of the world's biggest and greatest cities. While it's meant for children, as an adult and world traveller, I loved it even for myself :)

[Tanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique picture book that will spark young inquirers and travelers' (and those young at heart) interest in metropolis around the world. Each city is represented with just a couple of images, depicting famous sights, foods or drinks as well as activities typical for the city. I loved that on the pages for Berlin, there are amongst famous landmarks also the famous pedestrian traffic light "Ampelmann", "Currywurst" and Turkish Döner! I appreciated also on other pages a hint of the cultural diversity of the respective city shown alongside its local culture and traditions. One of my least favorite pages is the one for Hong Kong, I must admit though. I love the city and don't feel it's well represented with the images chosen. But that's just my personal opinion.
In addition, at the to of each page, the author states in which country the city is, what language is spoken there as well as the number of inhabitants.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adorable whimsically illustrated look at 34 cities from around the world. I love the illustrations and bright colors. Tariff chose landmarks and well known sites from each city to illustrate along with giving basic information like the country, population and language. While he gives the names of the sites he illustrated, there is no additional information. This didn't bother me the way it did some other reviewers. If he tried to cram information about each site in, the book wouldn't have the same bright minimalistic feel. I do wish he had added a page that briefly mentioned other cities with maybe one landmark for each. I think if I share this with my class I'll get a lot of questions about why our city isn't there even though its bigger than some of the ones chosen.

I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I take this book to be a travel curiosity book for kids. Each city it gives you the County, the language, and the population. Then it has colorful illustrations of the various places to see in that city. The idea is nice, but it’s missing lots of information.For example when you are in Buenos Aires, why should you visit the Floralis Generica sculpture? What is so special about “The Gherkin” in London. And who in the world is Pippi Longtocking? (Okay this one I know, but the kids reading the book may not.) The book does contain a small glossary for words that it uses in other languages which is nice, and so is the world map on the inside covers that tells you the location of each city. That being said, this is probably a book that a school library could use, but not much else.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Colorful book that depicts various sights in big tourist cities around the world. The book does a nice job of being eye-catching and of giving tastes of many different cities. However, some of the sights picked (at least 3 different hockey players across different states?) may be unnecessary and many of the words are much too difficult for children ages 4-8 to read or understand without help or explanation from adults (age as rated by the book copyright page; to clarify, the only "narrative" text in the book is the text that tells you the name of the picture). However, the pictures should be friendly and eye-catching enough tfor mini world travelers to explore.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first glance, I did not think I would like this book, so I am glad I took time to peruse each page. I found myself flipping back and forth to compare populations of various cities. I found no mention of what source/year the populations were taken from.
The maps on the end pages were helpful as well - even color coding the cities in each country.
The colorful illustrations were simple, and I could easily recognize buildings with which I am familiar, but...for the places I don't know, I had to wonder how close the representation is. That could lead the reader to other sources to find out, but I'd prefer to have some photographs.

[Stephanie Tournas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visual encyclopedia of some of the world's biggest cities. Each page opening depicts the city by showing famous landmarks, foods and sports. Text information includes country, languages spoken, and population. I like that the author shows people, of all skin colors, enjoying the places and foods, their faces communicating pleasure or awe. Tardif's signature naive illustrations are simple and colorful, accurate and entertaining. Whimsical details will make readers laugh, such as a man enjoying seafood in Vancouver, butter dripping down his cheeks, or the "legendary sewer-dwelling crocodile" of New York.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely wonderful book that pin-points many famous buildings/ places/ foods found in cities all over the world. I enjoyed how the book gave information telling the country, language spoken and population. This book could lead to a great conversation about different points of interest around the world. The illustrations were bold and lovely.
* received an ARC via NetGalley & Kids Can Press in exchange for an honest review.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! It begins with a map of the world. There are places with numbers on them that correspond with a location. Locations include Toronto, New York City and Rio De Janeiro. Each page has the country they belong to, the language they speak and how many people live there. Then there are four illustrations with some of the popular destinations from that location. So much fun, and kids will learn how to use a map and about other places around the word. Well done!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benoit Tardif introduces young readers to some of the major cities of the world. Each city contains basic facts (country where located, primary language(s) spoken, population) and then spotlights the city through colorful blocked simple illustrations of landmarks, sports, culture, food, and people. Tardif spotlights cities from all continents (except for Antarctica) and highlights them on a map in the back of the book. Informative and interesting book that makes me want to travel the world.

[Penny lurkykitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley.
This is a fun attractive kids geography book highlighting a diverse collection of major cities. It is bright and colorful and highlights facts and attractions for each city. There is a world map showing the location of each city. It would work best for a child who is able to read and who has started to study maps and geography. As a read-aloud book, it just sounds like a list. It would also be better visually in the print form.

[G-E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Album franchement intéressant pour apprendre les grandes villes aux tout petits. Quelques informations (Pays, langue, population) et plusieurs illustrations simples, colorées et très jolies. Les illustrations montrent les attraits touristiques, particularité des villes, sports, mets, personnages célèbres. Une belle façon de les faire voyager et découvrir le monde.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the illustrations that highlight places in cities around the world. I got an ARC from Edelweiss and downloaded it for my Kindle. It was harder to read in that format as the names of the places were on different pages so I had to swipe back and forth to find out what was in the pictures.

[Amanda Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book lists the major sites from many large cities around the world. The things you will see in each city that were chosen by the author can be landmarks, animals, athletes or food. I enjoyed the items selected to represent each city. I like the illustrations, but I think the book could have been better with some photographs. In some cases only a photo can relay the majesty of the landmarks.

[Donna Maguire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this was a fun and easy to follow picture book. The images are bright and its a good starting point about what the different cities have. It was interesting for me to note that at 34, out of the 34 places listed, I have visited 7 so far - still a few to go!

[Barbra · Rating 5 out of 5]

In colorful block illustrations this book showcases 34 cities around the world. Young students and adults can learn something unique about each place. A great addition to any geography lover’s library from ages four to eight.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book for kids 4-8 years of age to introduce them to 34 big metropolises around the world. Colorful illustrations and fun tidbits for each chosen city. Thought the addition of providing the country, language and population of each was a nice addition as well.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed digital review copies of this book through NetGalley and Edelweiss.

[Debbie Tanner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brightly colored travelogue of major cities around the world. This will be a great starting point for research of cities.

[sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, colourful and beautifully illustrated.

[Christine Turner]

Perfect for the youngest armchair travelers, this wordbook primer uses brightly colored illustrations sprinkled with quirky humor to introduce thirty-two of the world's major metropolises. The cities span the globe, from San Francisco to Stockholm to Sydney, and each gets its own two-page spread filled with the iconic buildings, local delicacies, favorite pastimes, natural wonders and famous landmarks that make it unique. Simple descriptive words label the illustrations so that children can discover the many riches of these fascinating places, such as New York's Empire State Building, Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, Athens's Parthenon and Bangkok's pad thai, to name a few. Also included are the city's country, language and population. A world map on the endpapers marks each city's location, providing context and geographical reference.