Imagine a City product reviews

This book immediately captured my interest with the title "Imagine a City" and the detailed black and white cover illustration of a pretty magnificent city. I wasn't even sure what the book was about but I knew I had to have it. So fair to say I was pretty chuffed to be chosen to review the book. Well fair to say I love the book and have spent hours with my son reading it and looking at the pictures it is truly a great book.

The first thing I noticed was the hard cover and the embossed writing it reminded me of a classic book from back when I was a child none of this glossy bright covers of more modern books this was classical and elegant which I really loved, would look great beside the bed on display as it is so well presented. I noticed as I turned the pages that what was inside the book was just as great with splendid detailed black and white pictures with no details lacking. I came to the realisation that you could spend hours just looking at the pictures and find new things to see every time you look.

So this is what me and my 2 year old did we read the story taking the time to "read" the pictures before turning over to a new page. We soon realised that on every page was a bear and a bunny hidden among the images doing various things so we made it our game to find these two characters on each page which was lots of fun and a race to see who could find them first. There was still plenty of other things to look at with a mix between humans and animals in magnificent cities where imagination is all around.

As my boy gets older there will be so much to discuss about imagining our own ideal city and what would be in, although fish that are buses sound pretty amazing to me. The book challenges you to imagine a city and lets you know that the world is in your hands which is quite a beautiful message to young children. Would love to see what other books this author may have written as I loved the simplicity of this one and we will treasure it for years to come.

The cover and title of this book immediately ignited my interest in seeing what lay between the covers so I couldn't wait to get this home and read it with my imaginative Miss Six. This is a lovely hardback book and immediately feels like you are holding quality.

The illustration's are incredibly detailed black and white pen and ink and did hold Miss Six's interest for a short time. They are very whimsical and immediately had me thinking of New York and the gallery's there and of random movies set in New York as well as the Witch and the Wardrobe... In fact if you spend time just looking at the pages you will see many images from favourite child hood stories. The words are very brief and just flow through the book effortlessly like a gentle breeze bringing the drawings together.

I think my favourite aspect of this book is the detailed illustration's and the way they merge imagination with reality in such a whimsical way. It is a very happy book and does encourage just lying back and letting your mind float rather than being confined by four walls or four sides to a page. Almost that the structure of our lives can have blurred edges where anything is possible. I really liked that as I want my children to believe that anything is possible so this is the type of book that encourages that way of thinking.

I would recommend this is you love whimsical books and enjoy books with very detailed and well thought out illustration's. The lack of colour though will mean that it may not hold a pre-schoolers attention for long. My Miss three wasn't interested in this book at all. Overall though this is a beautiful book.