CITY COLORS

Photographer Milich follows up City ABC Book (2001) and City Signs (2002) with another set of generic urban scenes, each placed opposite a close-up detail, and captioned with a single, large-type color word. Though the photos were taken in several countries (never identified), visible signs are in English, and even children without much big-city experience will have no trouble identifying either the subjects—which range from a hydrant and a bus stop, to a thickly painted safety railing and, at the end, a multicolored garage door—or their bright primary colors. Despite one bobble—a car door handle that is clear in the detail, but blurred beyond easy recognition in the larger picture, as the black limo is racing by—Milich surveys Tana Hoban territory here with a fresh eye, and the same ability to draw simple forms from the city’s visual jumble. (Picture book. 2-4)