Animal City

September 1, 2018
A complex, stunning Portuguese import.What begins as a fanciful story about a lone girl with straight, black hair and skin of an unnatural coral hue takes a turn toward the mysterious and, perhaps, dystopian. The jacket art and case cover--done, as is the rest of the book, in a bold, saturated palette--present a striking depiction of what may be read as a zoo or animal preserve. But then readers learn that "Nina likes to visit the jungle city," and they see a small, stick figure of a girl precariously hanging from a large, metal structure and gazing over the landscape. Ensuing pages show her interacting with animals in an increasingly bizarre setting that melds the urban with the wild. Digital illustrations have the look of prints, broad, flat applications of color overlapping in a way that emphasizes how the wild has taken over. No other humans appear, but Nina seems at peace and enjoys reading to the animals. In a metafictive twist, "the story the animals like best... / is this one: the one about them. / The story takes place in a quiet spot... / where humans once lived... / and where nature now runs wild." The book never explains what happened to the people of this city nor where Nina comes from and returns to. While some readers may be intrigued and provoked to speculation, others may find this ambiguity unsatisfying or troubling.Fascinating, eerie...perhaps frustrating--be ready for conversation. (Picture book. 4-8)

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November 1, 2018
Preschool-G Originally published in Portugal, this futuristic story has a mysterious, haunting quality lingering underneath its sunny, saturated color scheme. Nina, a young girl, ventures alone to a jungle she calls Animal City. Humans used to live in this place, but now it is home to a lush variety of plants and animals. The creatures are a friendly group, with no apparent predator-prey relationships. The digital illustrations employ solid colors, overlapping and layering them for depth and variety. Animal dens are dug around old cars abandoned and sinking into the ground. Buildings and roads are overgrown. Nina collects lost objects, such as parts of computers and televisions. What happened here? She is able to communicate with the animals and reads to them from printed books. The monkeys like science fiction, the flamingos prefer mythology, and the snake is a poetry fan. The account the animals like best, however, is the narrative told in the book itself, all about them. This rich fantasy leaves many questions unanswered, but the bright artwork and intriguing premise will enchant the right reader.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)