School Library Journal Review
Gr 3 UpFifteen poems in free verse celebrate the rhythm and diversity of city life, capturing its sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and seasons in arresting imagery. Tall buildings pushing through the clouds, a homeless woman with a ``stretching'' hand, the ever-present utility and maintenance crews digging and chopping beneath the streets, and ``...crowds of languages and clouds of steam from carts of cooking foods'' all reflect the many facets of an urban environmentits action, pulsing rhythms, and multiethnicity. Two-page spreads in hot colors provide a vibrant background for Barbour's numerous, lively sketches that accompany each selection. Varied perspectives, from that of small dog amidst a tangle of legs, a person lying down on the sidewalk or looking at shifting scenes from a bus window, to an overview of a crowded intersection offer multilayered vignettes. An exciting, accessible collection.Sally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Like beatnik scenes from '50s Hollywood movies, the poems in this self-consciously hip collection strain to be stylish and modern. Adoff (All the Colors of the Race; Sports Pages) loads his writing with details city-dwellers will easily recognize but the particulars he chooses (``Boys on skateboards, girls on in-line skates./ Joggers in shorts, joggers in sweats. An old/ woman walks with a cane'') and the e.e. cummings-style line breaks and letter spacing frequently seem arbitrary. Often the poems lend themselves to coffee house parody, e.g., the narrator describes street musicians and then says, ``We snap fingers./ We snap fingers./ We snap/ fingers.'' Barbour's (Little Nino's Pizzeria) cleverly composed retro illustrations appear against densely saturated backgrounds-deep red to match a poem about fire trucks, Easter-egg blue to match a poem about Sunday breakfast. More consistent than the text, they vibrate a jazzy fluidity and rhythm. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Graceful, stylized forms fill the pages with pattern and texture against vibrant background colors, while the poems, with their correlating textural rhythms, take us through a day -- and several seasons -- in the city. An energetic, cosmopolitan, and unapologetic evocation of urban life, skillfully mingling free verse with free association. From HORN BOOK 1995, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Ages 5-9. Adoff's poetry celebrates the city the way a child experiences it, primarily through the senses. Garbage trucks clang and crash, cold water gushes from a hydrant, and taxi horns, subway trains, and engines provide the street music of the book's title. Buildings push through clouds in the sky, while on the ground, some empty crack vials lie in the grass at the park. In short, these 14 poems portray the city not as an idealized metropolis, but as a diverse mixture of sights, sounds, and feelings that most city children will recognize. Illustrating each poem on a double-page spread, Barbour's stylized paintings fill the pages with hot colors and simplified images. They help make this book an attractive addition to poetry collections. (Reviewed February 01, 1995)0060215224Carolyn Phelan