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)
