A tour of ``my favorite places,'' described in a letter from Becky to a friend who's moving to New York from the Midwest. The child's-eye view suggests a good balance of topics--a flea market and the subway, as well as Manhattan's familiar attractions. Folk-artist Jakobsen fills her precise illustrations with details to explore, employing different points of view to good advantage: the Empire State Building in perspective from the street (sideways on a foldout page) plus a panorama from its top on the verso; elevated views of the N.Y.C. Marathon and Chinatown. A vertical foldout accommodates the Natural History Museum's remarkably tall, slender barosaurus. The illustrations are busy but nicely orchestrated, with bright, attractively stylized forms and figures mingling on every spread, plus Becky--in the same attire regardless of season--to be discovered on each. Other pictorial visits to New York include Munro's Inside-Outside book (1985); this one is distinguished by its wealth of cheerful, authentic detail and pleasingly decorative style. Endpaper map. (Picture book. 4-9)
