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The City Kid the Suburb Kid
The grass may seem greener on the other side—but in the end there’s no place like home. That’s what two boys discover in this fresh and contemporary version of Aesop’s timeless “The City Mouse and the Country Mouse.” And it’s a great value, because the tale is told twice. When kids are done with one half, they simply flip the book over for a different side of the story!
Jack can’t wait to spend a week with Adam in the suburbs. No more honking horns! No more hot and noisy subways! And he does enjoy the tree climbing, fishing, and triple-dipped cones. But soon he starts wondering what’s happening with his friends back in the city.
And when it’s Adam’s turn to visit, he happily leaves behind his annoying sister and lawns that need mowing: hello, skyscrapers, skateboards, and shopping downtown! Then, just like Jack, he begins to miss all the familiar things he took for granted.
Deb Pilutti’s witty writing emphasizes the similarities in the boys’ lives, while Linda Bleck’s vividly-colored pictures cleverly play up the differences. The result: a book that children will read—and love—again and again.
Jack can’t wait to spend a week with Adam in the suburbs. No more honking horns! No more hot and noisy subways! And he does enjoy the tree climbing, fishing, and triple-dipped cones. But soon he starts wondering what’s happening with his friends back in the city.
And when it’s Adam’s turn to visit, he happily leaves behind his annoying sister and lawns that need mowing: hello, skyscrapers, skateboards, and shopping downtown! Then, just like Jack, he begins to miss all the familiar things he took for granted.
Deb Pilutti’s witty writing emphasizes the similarities in the boys’ lives, while Linda Bleck’s vividly-colored pictures cleverly play up the differences. The result: a book that children will read—and love—again and again.
40 pages, Hardcover
First published May 6, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 6, 2019
The grass is always greener on someone else’s lawn. In this reverse style book, it shows two different perspectives of a city and suburb kid who goes to visit the other. In the beginning, they are glad to leave their home as they state the negatives of the location they live in. By the end, the come to truly cherish their lifestyle, and the boys realize there is no place like home. The author focuses on the similarities of the stories with parallel text. The only difference is the location which is cleverly illustrated through colorful details.
November 1, 2011
Shout out for Michigan authors! This is a great twist of the old Aesop's fable, and the flip-flop format and repeated lines with different contexts make this book fun to read and reread. Compare with "Same-Same but Different" by Kostecki-Shaw.
January 17, 2015
Cool reverse-style book.
June 18, 2018
Cousins explore each other's homes in this cute reversible book. It's a fun take on the "there's no place like home" theme.
October 15, 2021
Which is better - the city or the suburbs? While a change is as good as a holiday, these kids discover there’s no place like home.
March 11, 2022
Kinda fun how you flip it over.
February 7, 2011
If you ever have to talk about the different between the suburbs and the city, this book does it all for you. With the illustrations, the students can clearly understand the different between the city and the suburbs. The two main characters go on a sleepover. One kid lives in the city and the other kid lives in the suburbs and they get to sleepover in their friend's place and see different places from where they used to live. From their perspectives, the audiences can distinguish the two places. The illustrator does an excellent job by drawing the smallest thing that represents each places. For instances, she draws a pigeon and street market to represent the city. The suburbs have big houses and swimming pools in the back yard. The pictures are fun to look at and it gives you a visual representation of two places at once.
March 5, 2015
This book compares the city life to the suburb life. The story is told in two parts. In the first story, Jack goes to meet his friend Adam in the suburbs. Adam is so excited that jack is going to stay with him they have alot to do, ride their bikes in the neighborhood, go shopping, get ice cream and sleep outside. Jack is afraid of sleeping outside and is excited that he gets to go home in the morning. The second story is told when Adam goes to visit Jack in the city. The reader can simply turn the book over to read Adam's story in the city. The author takes the reader through the same events that the boys did in the suburbs. Both boys end up realizing that there is no place like home.
I would recommend this book to grades K-1 to introduce compare and contrast. You could use the book as a read aloud and have students compare and contrast city life to life in the suburbs.
I would recommend this book to grades K-1 to introduce compare and contrast. You could use the book as a read aloud and have students compare and contrast city life to life in the suburbs.
November 17, 2015
Simple lesson about the joy of experiencing new things, the grass always being greener, and the attractive safety of routine and familiarity. Go back to the velvet lined coffin that is your life, returning to your home, children.
While I understand the point is the sameness in contrast, it wouldn't have hurt to slightly change some things. Just flipping the ice cream cone's stack of flavors is subtle, might as well replace the plain ice cream with artisanal blood orange and bergamot ice cream hand crafted by some hipster that sneers at both Jack and Adam.
Unlike most books with a similar sentiment, there is ultimately a correct side and the wrong side.
While I understand the point is the sameness in contrast, it wouldn't have hurt to slightly change some things. Just flipping the ice cream cone's stack of flavors is subtle, might as well replace the plain ice cream with artisanal blood orange and bergamot ice cream hand crafted by some hipster that sneers at both Jack and Adam.
Unlike most books with a similar sentiment, there is ultimately a correct side and the wrong side.
November 26, 2008
A new take on the city mouse and country mouse: each boy shares his story of visiting the other--the words are the same, but the illustrations tell the full tale of what it means when they "ride through the neighborhood". Halfway through the stay, each boy gets homesick and longs for his family. This is an intriguing rewrite of the classic, though I felt some of it was forced--perhaps too short to develop that homesickness. I liked how the pictures completed the story; they were bright and colorful, with plenty to look at on the lap, but big enough for storytime. This book employs flipping it over for the other boy's story.
June 16, 2008
Jack lives in the city and his friend Adam lives in the suburbs. When Adam invites Jack for a weeklong visit, Jack can’t wait to get away from the noise of the city and his chores and his annoying sister. But after a couple of days away from home, Jack discovers how much he misses it. Turn the book over and you can read about Adam’s visit to Jack’s home in the city. This is a clever take on the story of The Country Mouse and the City Mouse.
November 27, 2011
Excellent illustrations that clearly show the difference between living in the city versus living in a suburb/small town. If you have a student in your class who has recently moved from such a place, then they will relate and be able to share their personal story with the class. After reading this story, the class can work together on creating a compare and contrast graph and later they can write about their favorite thing of where they live.
September 23, 2008
This is a book that tells two stories. Jack, the city kid and Adam, the suburb kid visited each other. It took a week for both of them to enjoy a different environment and activities. But at the end, they both missed their homes and families. It was fun to visit, but home is always the favorite place.
I love the colorful retro style pictures on heavy matte paper. This is a gorgeous book.
I love the colorful retro style pictures on heavy matte paper. This is a gorgeous book.
July 21, 2021
Well - it's been four years and I don't remember this one at all. It's a good reminder to myself to WRITE my reviews just after I read the book. I read so many books and my memory is so poor, that I really, really appreciate when I go back to a book I've read and found that I have used Goodreads like a personal journal.
December 7, 2015
This is such a great book! I'm so sad it's out of print. I would recommend it to all my second grade teacher pals. It's a great modern version of Town Mouse, Country Mouse, and perfect for teaching different types of communities in Social Studies! Plus it has some clever writer's craft going on, too. If you can find a used copy, but it! Or better yet, lobby the publisher and get it back in print!
July 31, 2008
My suburb friend and her kids bought this for my city son and I adore it. You flip it one way and it is the city kid's story and flip it the other way and it is the suburb kid's. The pics are all different but the best part is that the stories are word for word the same. Awesome book!!
October 29, 2014
The suburbs and the city are not quite as similar as this book makes them out to be, in my opinion. Cute idea, though I don't think many suburb kids have friends in the big city and vice versa. They should!
March 4, 2013
My writting teacher read this book her name is mrs. murphy and I like it I got scared in the 1st half of it .
March 24, 2014
Clever book. Cute way to help kids learn there are things to enjoy in either place.
April 1, 2014
One in the city, one in the suburbs. For each boy, their home is their favorite, but they enjoy the break to explore their friend's home. Can use this book with my favorite spot poem...
February 21, 2011
Great book to compare the two lives of these boys and where they live.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews