We Live in the City - by Lois Lenski

We Live in the City by Lois Lenski

One of the Roundabout America series. Published by Lippincott in 1954.

Second/third grade independent reading level; interest level lower.

My phone rang one day recently; it was my sister calling from upstate NY. She was at a church rummage sale, and there were old books. Did I want them? Fifty cents each. I asked her to read off the titles so I could make a decision on each one. “We Live in the City by Lois Lenski”! Yes! Yes!!! First edition too! I’ve watched sales for these Roundabout America books for 40 years!

Lois Lenski was born in 1893 in Springfield, Ohio, the fourth of five children born to Reverend Richard and Mrs. Lenski. The adults in her life encouraged her artistic talent. After high school graduation, she attended Ohio State University, graduating with a degree in education. She then studied art in New York City and in London. After her marriage to Arthur Covey, she began to carve out time from family life to pursue her art as well as writing. Many of her children’s books were based on her own family growing up as well as her own children. The places they lived also inspired several books including the Roundabout America series. She wrote,

” Through all my poems run the same themes, concepts and values that rear again and again in my stories. It is of interest to note that my very first book, Skipping Village, was originally titled: A Child's Town. This theme - a child and his town, or a child and his environment - can be traced through all my books. It is obvious in two of my latest picture books, At Our House and I Went For a Walk, and is behind all of Mr. Small's activities. It runs through my historical books, which portray children and family life in early periods of our history, and it is the basic theme behind my Regional and Roundabout America books. Whether a short picture book, a scholarly historical study, or an interpretation of some phase of life in contemporary America, my books are essentially family stories, reflecting the child in his environment.”

Lenski wanted her stories to draw the reader to empathy. Her characters’ experiences served as examples of personal growth. She felt that all people are to be respected, regardless of their social background, no matter how they live, no matter how much they own or lack. In that sense, her books are very appropriate for today’s climate of prejudice and racial unrest. Some currently criticize her work as unrealistic, naïve, and too simplistic, as well as inaccurate historically, especially in relation to interactions between whites and non-whites.

She won the Newbery Medal for Strawberry Girl in 1945 and the Children’s Book Award for Judy’s Journey in 1947. Lenski also illustrated books for other authors such as The Little Engine That Could  by Watty Piper, 1930, and the first four books in Maud Hart Lovelace’s well-loved Betsy-Tacy series. Lois died in Florida in 1974.

Her books make nice easy read-alouds to early elementary children. Some titles are very rare; others are easily accessible.

Some of her books include: (books followed by * are titles I own)

Mr. Small  books – picture books*

Seasons books – picture books

Phebe Fairchild, Her Book – 1936 Newbery Honor book

A-Going to the Westward*

Bound Girl of Cobble Hill

Ocean-Born Mary

Blueberry Corners*

Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison – 1941 Newbery Honor book*

Puritan Adventure*

Roundabout America series

We Live in the South

Peanuts for Billy Ben*

We Live in the City*

Project Boy

Berries in the Scoop*

We Live by the River

Little Sioux Girl

We Live in the Country

We Live in the Southwest

We Live in the North

High-Rise Secret*

Regional series

Bayou Suzette

Strawberry Girl*

Blue Ridge Billy*

Judy’s Journey*

Boom Town Boy*

Cotton in My Sack*

Texas Tomboy*

Prairie School *

Mama Hattie’s Girl

Corn-Farm Boy*

San Francisco Boy*

Flood Friday*

Houseboat Girl*

Coal Camp Girl

Shoo-Fly Girl

To Be a Logger

Deer Valley Girl*

And many others, including an autobiography, Journey Into Childhood*, published in 1972.

We Live in the City is one of the Roundabout America series. 128 pages in length. The book is divided into 3 parts: Newsboy Mike, Penthouse Girl, and Shoeshine Boy. Lenski has included two original poems at the start of each section.  Lenski’s blackline illustrations are scattered throughout. The book does not say, but I believe the story takes place in the 40s or 50s. Also, the city is not named but seems to be New York City or some other big city in the Northeast.

From the forward:

“Here is a world within a world. A world of a few streets between a park and a river in a great city. Here the streets are noisy with traffic; the subway rushes underground.; the elevated shakes the house and rattles the windows. Many homes are tucked away in tall apartment houses and three- and four-story flats. Here many children live and work and play on the streets. They are very much at home there. Let us make them our friends.”

In part 1, we first meet Mike Flynn, the city newsboy, from Irish descent. He is a young boy working to help support his family by selling papers. What an industrious young man he is! He’s working hard to earn enough money to buy a good warm coat for himself. He also takes some side jobs shoveling snow. A young lady comes to purchase a paper and Mike befriends her. She is the little girl in part 2, Penthouse Girl. Shirley is well-to-do, friendly and polite. She goes to the bakery to get her birthday cake, insists on carrying it herself, but she trips over her little dog and the cake falls and is smashed. Mike comes to the rescue. Later Shirley leaves for the summer to go to Maine on holiday. Mike also met a boy named Angelo in part 1, and Angelo is the main character in part 3. Angelo works as a shoeshine boy to bring in some extra money for the family. Mike helps him learn how to be a good businessman and successful in his new enterprise. Angelo’s family has to leave their tenement building because they are behind in the rent. They move all of their possessions out onto the sidewalk and sit down, no place to go. But Mike comes along and takes them all home, and his father helps Angelo’s father find work and a place to stay so all ends well.

Obviously, the plot is simplistic and would appeal only to younger children. Some of the vocabulary might have to be explained to children who do not live in a city: fire escape, taxis, shoe shine boy, tenement, dumb-waiter, icebox.  It’s a sweet story with an optimistic feel despite the hardships of Mike and Angelo in contrast to Shirley. But even then, Shirley is kind-hearted and unspoiled.

An example of Lenski’s poetry from the book:

In the City

The buildings are tall,

The people are small –

              In the city.

The noises are loud,

There’s always a crowd –

              In the city.

The cars move fast,

Great trucks jolt past –

              In the city.

Up in the sky

The pigeon fly –

              In the city.

East or west,

I like it best

              In the city.

Recommended additional books/resources to aid your studies:

The Bobbsey Twins’ Search in the Big City by Laura Lee Hope

City Book by Lucille Corcos

A Walk in the City by Rosemary Dawson

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Subway by Larry Brimner

Newspapers by Leonard Everett Fisher

The First Book of News by Sam & Beryl Epstein

Maisy Goes to the City by Lucy Cousins

The Story of the Empire State Building by Patrick Clinton

The Inside-Outside Book of New York City by Roxie Munro

This is New York by M. Sasek

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Swift

The Scots and Scotch-Irish in America by James E. Johnson

Just Like Max by Karen Ackerman

The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone – on the topic of industriousness

Jam & Jelly by Holly & Nellie by Gloria Whelan – on the topic of industriousness

(Book review by Sandy Hall. All rights reserved. August 15, 2017)