CityBlock, a board book that entertains toddlers and up

CityBlock is the fourth entry into the series by Christopher Franceschelli and Peskimo. Technically these books aren’t a series in that there is a continual story they’re telling. Rather, its presentation and format that they use that make their books stand out in a crowded field of board books.  Their previous books looked at the alphabet, numbers and dinosaurs and displayed each of them in a durable manner that appealed to children and had elements that made them fun to look at for adults.

In CityBlock we travel through a typical day in the big city with a young boy and girl, who are accompanied by their grandfather. They wonder how they’ll get from place to place but have an adventure while discovering the subway, a taxi, the bus, a ferry or just walk around.

Once near places of interest they’ll take in the major attraction or simply enjoy being in the moment. They find a farmer’s market, gift shop, soccer game and all sorts of place to eat.

What is really impressive about these books is how well constructed they are. We received AlphaBlock three years ago and it’s still in one piece and being used. These are more than board books, they’re board books with gatefold pages that expand out of the book or have die cut pages that are cut into various shapes.

For example in AlphaBlock, CountaBlock and DinoBlock the subject of interest was cut into the shape of what it is. The neck of the Stegasorous, the curvature of the “B” and linear nature of all the numbers were cut around so that the page could be turned or pulled at a rough angle by young hands. Even board books with rectangular or square pages have a shorter life span. For a family to have two children actively use a board book-and still have the pages and spine of the book survive for three years is remarkable.

When we first opened CityBlock I made an excited yelp. “What’s the book daddy?!” our 6 year old questioned.  The fact that I was initially excited about a new entry into these books speaks to how much we enjoyed reading the previous ones to our kids.

Having said that, I enjoyed the content in the first three books more than this one.  CityBlock is great, but the previous three were outstanding. Is the difference between outstanding and great that vast? Not really, children won’t notice any contextual differences between the series of books and any age will enjoy thumbing through the pages.  Fans of the first three will easily welcome the bright colors and fun personality of CityBlock back to their book shelf.  New readers to their books will quickly find ways to get the others so that they’ll have a complete set.