In the City

Caldecott Medalist Rachshka studies an oft-overlooked group of city dwellers--pigeons--conveying through their sociable flocks a message about making friends. In his loose signature style, he pans across a sweep of brownstones and brick buildings, traffic lights and telephone wires as pigeons wheel through the air. "If you tilt your head up high,/ you will see the pigeons fly." Pigeons vary in hue ("This one has a bluish head,/ His or hers is white instead"), and they congregate without regard to this difference. Similarly, two kids, a Black child in blue glasses and a white-skinned child with a blue hair tie, watch the birds, then find themselves picnicking on the same bench. There's instant rapport, and soon they race off hand-in-hand: "How do two friends find each other?/ Why this one, not another?" There's no telling what draws anyone into a friendship, Raschka hints, but this detailed cityscape shows that a friend is a wonderful thing to find. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)