Keeping The City Going

Keeping The City Going

Picture book
During his over two decades in New York City author Brian Floca
has really liked drawing its places and people. When the pandemic
began and so much of his beloved city shut down he discovered that
drawing the vehicles still on the streets helped him to cope.
"...Operating these trucks, ambulances, and more were the people who
perform the essential work that has always been required to get New
York from one day to the next: the people who stock the stores, who
keep the city safe and fed and clean and running, and who take care of
the sick...In the midst of a pandemic, the steady carrying-on of that
work became remarkable."
As these pictures began to pile up Floca began to wonder if they
could help help kids make sense of the chaos that had removed all
vestiges of normal from their lives. Keeping The City Going was the
result.
The book is a loving tribute to essential workers. Truck drivers
keep stores stocked. Sanitation workers pick up garbage. Ambulance
drivers take the sick and injured to hospitals where cadres of workers
do their best to restore them to health. Transportation workers get
many of them to their jobs.
I just love this book. As an adult with grown children, as I
read Keeping The City Going, I felt a surge of pride for my family
member essesntial workers here in Maine: my construction worker
husband and my EMT son, Adam, who was able to also use his computer
expertise to acquire supplies that were in short supply for his
ambulance company. Imagine how proud children of essential workers
will feel, proud in a way they are often not allowed to in our status
obsessed society.
"It feels both meaningful and fraught to make a book about this
difficult moment, about a crisis that, at this writing, continues to
touch so many people, so deeply, and in so many different ways...That
was the city I saw out my window and on walks this spring, and it is a
glimpse of that city that I hope readers will fond in this book."
Although written about a specific city, the book's insights hold
true for basically the nation. It's a must acquire for all public and
school libraries.
A great big shout out goes out to essential workers in all cities,
towns, and rural areas. You are our heroes!
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


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