How a City Works

Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2

by D.J. Ward, Violet Lemay (Illustrations)

Read and find out about how cities work in this colorfully illustrated nonfiction picture book. Millions of people live in cities around the world, but have you ever wondered how cities work ? All those people need clean water to drink, a safe place to live, and a way to get all around the city. How do you take care of all those people’s needs? Read and find out all about the systems a city has to help keep everyone safe, healthy, and happy. This book on city systems will appeal to the young civil engineer. How a City Works is filled with fun, accurate art, and includes tons of information. For example, it answers the Where does all the electricity needed to make a city run come from? How a City Works covers water treatment, power, sewage, recycling, and transportation. How a City Works comes packed with visual aids like charts, sidebars, an infographic, and a funny, hands-on activity—how to clean up dirty “sewage” water, using puffed rice cereal, raisins, hot chocolate mix, and coffee filters. This is a clear and appealing science book for early elementary age kids, both at home and in the classroom. It's a Level 2 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out, which means the book explores more challenging concepts for children in the primary grades. The 100+ titles in this leading nonfiction series Top 10 reasons to love Books in this series support the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards. Let's-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens, Picture Books, Engineering, Science, Stem

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Kathryn]

Very well done! Both my eight-year-old and five-year-old were captivated and asked for multiple reads.

[Anna]

Definitely not age appropriate for the under-2 set, but I loved it.

[Dianna]

Really great explanations of things all kids are curious about. A little long for reading aloud but my four-year-old sat attentively through the whole book.

[Madi Coker]

"How a City Works" by DJ Ward is an information non-fiction story about the inner workings of a city. The book explains things like power plants, sewage pipes, water treatment plants, and more so that a student can see all of the planning that goes into running a city. I thought this book was very informational and even taught me a few things like how a water treatment plant works. I would use this book in a Kindergarten classroom when we talk about community helpers as there are a lot of community helpers that contribute to the functioning of a city.

[Diane]

“You city has a plan for that.”

Explains to young readers how clean water gets to your house, how electricity gets to your house, what happens when you flush your toilet, etc.

Includes websites to visit for additional information on these processes. It also includes an activity to how to clean up dirty water.

[Anthony]

A behind the scene look at how a city works and its functions on a day to day basis, and the people that make it happen.

[Hannah]

Good, informative book on city public works that gives appreciation to all those who work together to make things run! Written easily enough for children to understand.

[Esther May]

I read this as part of an engineering class that I am teaching. It is not specifically about engineering, but it does present a lot of opportunity to ask the question "how does that work". Which is a good question for engineers.