Block City

by Robert Louis Stevenson, Ashley Wolff

A child creates a world of his own which has mountains and sea, a city and ships, all from toy blocks.

Genres: Picture Books, Poetry, Childrens, Construction, Fiction, Classics, Storytime

1 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 1988

About the author

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.

Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.

Reviews

[Tommie Branscum]

I didn't realize this was a poem that had been illustrated at first. It is great to show students some ideas for building with blocks and talk about imagination. A few of the poetry words are a little outdated for today's children but with the proper introduction about poetry and discussion of the words this would be a good read-aloud.

[Tanisha Jean]

Title (italicize): Block City
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Illustrator (if separate from the author): Daniel Kirk
Genre: Children’s picture book
Theme(s): Building, poetry
Opening line/sentence (type directly from text): “What are you able to build with your blocks?”
Brief Book Summary (2-3 sentences in your own words): The book is about a young boy, who plays with his blocks, while outside is pouring rain. But he uses his wild imagination to make playing with his blocks fun.
Response to Two Professional Reviews (3-4 sentences in your own words): Kirkus Reviews talks about how grand this story is with the architectural details and “toy-like inhabitants as the pages turn”. The boy shows many skills as he is really good at building blocks.
Tell Me Framework (4 sentences in your own words):
Like(s): I like how creative and poetic the story is.
Dislike(s): N/A
Patterns(s): The author is rhyming in his story.
Puzzle(s): N/A
Consideration of Instructional Application (3-4 sentences in your own words) Students could do Fil in the Shape using blocks or Shape matching. Teachers should do a couple of activities with the whole class. Once done, students can free play with the blocks.

[Asho]

I was picking out books for my 5-year-old at the library and hesitated with this one, wondering if it would be too babyish for him. I checked it out anyway, and I'm glad I did. Once I realized it was the Robert Louis Stevenson poem I was happy, since both of my kids seem to enjoy listening to his poetry and I like reading it. The illustrations ended up being kind of interesting, too. My son was intrigued by the last few pages where reality seems to start to mix with the fantasy world of the block city.

[Villain E]

From Robert Louis Stevenson's A Children's Garden of Verses, a poem about building a city out of blocks and fantasizing stories that go along with it. Like a lot of classics, this feels like a standard trope now. The art is pretty good.

[Monique]

Make sure you get a copy with the Ashley Wolff pictures and then sit back and watch everyone in the house effortlessly memorize one of the best from Stevenson's garden as you painlessly read it over and over again.

[Annie Payne]

This was a fun read, and the illustrations really helped the kids understand the actual story.

[Samantha]

Classic.

[Mely]

Lovely illustations. Cute story. My little one really enjoyed this. Great way to spark imagination.

[Linda Mitchell]

Good vocabulary building book for kids. I had to look up “kirk.” It’s Scottish for church. The book also has a few black kids which is a bonus.

[Brianna Santucci]

It was so creative

[Gail Zachariah]

A child creates a world of his own with mountains and sea, a city and ships, all from toy blocks. Ages 3 - 7. Making, Imagination.

[Adam]

“I’m doing good on Goodreads again!”




(gave the book two ⭐️ because there is a yellow ‘o’ and yellow ‘y’ in the title. Read aloud by himself at 4yo, missed two words, ‘establish’ and ‘pillar’.)

[Hannah]

Robert Louis Stevenson's poem comes to life with lovely illustrations in this book!

[Taylor]

Good rhyming scheme, fun and colorful pictures, great choice for storytime.

[✝️ H J Palmer ✝️]

As a kids book it is alright, but not spectacular. It would be excellent to explore classic poetry with kids. It did briefly mention building temples, which seemed a little odd.

[Jessica Roberts]

Beautiful, classic poem with sweet illustrations bringing the words to life.

[Ash Kemp]

Block City is a lush, colorful block building adventure, with text from the classic poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. Daniel Kirk's bright illustrations capture the pure joy and imagination of the little boy as Stevenson's words set the magical tone. Hazel says: I like blocks and this has lots of blocks. We give this book 5 stars for pure, lovely fun!

[Diana]

I was intrigued by the fact that the author of this was Robert Louis Stevenson. Turns out that it's one of his poems all illustrated up and formatted as a picture book. I enjoyed the poem, as it's one I'd read many moons ago, but I also really enjoyed the illustrations, which was a bit of a surprise. Overall, I think this book was wonderful, and I would use it again.

[AP]

We are big fans of playing with wooden blocks in our family and looked forward to reading a story about building a block city by the sea. Cute poem and idea. The illustrations are well-done, but the child who's the main character has creepy-looking eyes.

[Kelechi]

This story focuses on shapes in NYC. I liked it because of the illustrations and the partciular focus on the European terms. This would be great for a lesson with culture, and then I could incorporate some geometry as well.

[Vilo]

Block City is a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, is illustrated by Daniel Kirk (author/illustrator of Bus Stop, Bus Go! and Library Mouse among many others--all well worth reading to the picture book set). The illustration is beautiful and adds greatly to the beauty of the poem.

[Meagan]

I was so surprised to discover that the poem in this book is by Robert Louis Stevenson! While the illustrations are not my style, the bright colors are appealing and I appreciate that the illustrations tell a visual story that perfectly accompanies the poem. We will be reading this book a lot!

[Jen]

Very colorful, clean, bold pictures and a chid's impagination. It rhymes. Great for a preschool read aloud.

[Buxmont Uu]

CC 24

[Heather]

Inspiration to get your kiddo creating their own block cities.

[Elaine Conway]

STEM, Blocks, colors, rhyming, legos

[LI LIN]

This book adopt for the young children, i enjoy the process for his build the cattle. It is interesting.

[Rani]

Great illustrations to accompany the classic poem of Robert Louis Stevenson.

[Jenny]

The boys are currently playing with blocks. We just read this and their imagination was sparked. :)