Small in the City

Product Information

Four year old Charlie was too frightened by the illustrations to finish it, even when guided by his mother. He spent little time looking at the illustrations, and couldn’t relate to the text when it was read to him. Starting without words, the book is reflective rather than particularly narrative; we are taken along for the ride in a potentially hostile environment that the child nonetheless has found his or her place in. At the end, he or she reminds us that when we’re tired of exploring, we can always go home. After all, home is a place of love and warmth, wherever it is. Both winning books are published by independent publishers. Look Both Ways delivers the first win for Knights Of, in its first year to have a longlisted title; Small in the City is the 16 th win for Walker Books (4 Carnegie Medals and 12 Kate Greenaway Medals), which had nine books featured in this year’s longlist. Independent publishers had a strong showing on this year’s longlist, with 29 of the 40 books coming from independent presses.

Small in the City by Sydney Smith - LoveReading4Kids Small in the City by Sydney Smith - LoveReading4Kids

T]he images do most of the talking. They range from modest vignettes of city life — a portion of wire fencing, a swatch of building — to showstoppers including a fractured illustration of the downcast boy's funhouse-like reflection in a mirrored-glass skyscraper. . . [H]eartrending.”— Shelf Awareness, STARRED REVIEW The eponymous waterfalls of Sioux Falls take center stage in South Dakota’s most populous city. Falls Park was built around them, providing a bucolic attraction at the heart of the city. The remains of Queen Bee Mill point to the region’s original importance as an agricultural center. Today, Sioux Falls is a great destination for families, thanks to sights like the Butterfly House and Aquarium, and the Great Plains Zoo and Museum of Natural History. For outdoors enthusiasts, the Sioux Falls Bike Trail follows a 19-mile (31km) loop along the course of the Big Sioux River through Downtown and beyond. It can be a little scary to be small in a big city, but this child has some good advice for a very special friend in need.Manjeet Mann is an acclaimed writer and producer of several one-woman shows and episodic plays of personal monologues based in Kent. She was an associate artist with The Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Soho Writers Lab, wrote a short comedy film for BBC writers’ room and her play, Starting Out, was adapted into a podcast in 2019. I had only thus far read Sidewalk Flowers, illustrated by Sydney Smith, which I loved for the artwork, so I was eager to see the first picture book he has both written and illustrated. The art is stunning, the story at least initially about what it is like being small in a big city. Then we see it is a letter to another small someone. Then we realize the child is searching the large, now somewhat desolate city for this someone, and eventually we realize that someone is the child's cat, and then it is suddenly and surprisingly a moving story that you have to read over right away to fully appreciate.

Small in the City | Literacy Tree Small in the City | Literacy Tree

When Amber runs, it’s the only time she feels completely free-far away from her claustrophobic home life. Her father wants her to be a dutiful daughter, waiting for an arranged marriage like her sister Ruby. Spelling Seeds have been designed to complement Writing Roots by providing weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling that include open-ended investigations and opportunities to practise and apply within meaningful and purposeful contexts, linked (where relevant) to other areas of the curriculum and a suggestion of how to extend the investigation into home learning. CILIP is the leading voice for the information, knowledge management and library profession. Our goal is to put information and library skills and professional values at the heart of a democratic, equal and prosperous society. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. The Youth Libraries Group (YLG) is a special interest group of CILIP who work to preserve and influence the provision of quality literature and library services for children and young people, both in public libraries and school library services.A child braves strange streets in search of a mysterious someone in this gorgeous story about love and loss.”— People Magazine

Small in the City by Sydney Smith | Goodreads

In Look Both Ways I wanted to explore who it is that children are when the watchful eye of adults aren’t around. So often, children’s literature takes place either at school or at home but there’s an in-between that is the journey home. And even though they all sit in the classroom together, when that bell rings they go separate ways and go through separate things, as we all go through separate journeys in life, that influence and impact who it is that we are when we show up the following day. But the miracle of life is the idea that if we were to trust this process, believe in the power of humanity and speak to one another, no matter who you are or where you are from, all over the world there is a good chance that if we speak to each other long enough, we will probably have someone in common and that’s important, because it’s really difficult to hate someone when the two of you love the same person.

The use of line, reflection, and perspective masterfully evoke a bustling gray city, making this thoughtful book an artful choice”— School Library Journal, Starred Review At first it seems as if she is advising herself, but as the story evolves we realize that she is sending messages of comfort to her missing loved-one. The country is quiet and there were moments of mindfulness and the sublime found in unremarkable places. I suppose I am always trying to recapture those feelings. You have referred to a “rural mentality” that rejects the limelight or attention focused on an individual. How did that atmosphere affect you? Does it still inform your work as an illustrator and now as an author?