CITY OF SNOW

Written in an odd mix of rhymed and free verse, this middle-class-child’s-eye view of the Blizzard of 1888 offers a compelling picture of the disaster and its aftermath. Though the young narrator is able to persuade her father to take her to the circus in Madison Square, by the time they’re slogging home, “Our faces glazed crystal, / we battled the blizzard, / which was like a wild animal / rattling a cage, / attacking and fighting / all in a rage.” From a priceless cover scene of tiny figures sliding across the frozen East River beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, to views of passengers being rescued from a stalled elevated train, Filipucci’s neatly drawn city scenes effectively capture both the period look of New York’s streets and the catastrophe’s scale. But she does it in a lighthearted way that underscores the resilience of the city’s residents. High links present and past at the end, noting that New York’s electrical lines and public transportation went underground as a result of the storm. An absorbing lead-in to Jim Murphy’s Blizzard! (2000). (author’s note) (Picture book. 7-9)