Keeping The City Going, fabulous art and poetic look at city shutdown

There’s a surge of illustrated books coming out now about COVID and how it impacted people or the places that we live. Brian Floca is an author and illustrator who works in both aspects with equal ease. In Keeping The City Going he’s the author/illustrator and has captured what New York City looked like during the peak COVID pandemic time. While the book takes a look at that city specifically, the labels or departments could easily be thought of as “Any City USA” and the heartfelt lessons of thanks and sacrifice are just as valid.

Floca’s art is great. He’s the winner of the Ralph Caldecott Medal, which is an annual award given to a children’s illustrated book artist. His art is realistic and given the full range of a big city to roam here. From the powered-bike delivery person, the myriad of trucks that go places, maintenance, emergency vehicles, and more are all lovingly documented.

A city is nothing without its people and they’re the backbone of Keeping The City Going. The subway driver, sanitation folks, mail, UPS, electrical and medical people are seen doing what needed to get done. There is also text accompanying each picture. That text is poetic and sparse in the pictures where the city’s vehicles are present.

Towards the end of the book, we see the neighbors, hanging out on their porch or looking out the window. It’s here where the poetry and the book speed up and lay down an optimistic and forward-looking tone. Prior to that, it’s not dour, but the city streets are nothing like they normally are, more reminiscent of the uncertain days of the COVID pandemic. One could say it’s the uneasy calm that big cities adapted to when people simply were not going places in large numbers.

Similar to Sharing A Smile, Keeping The City Going offers a unique time capsule of the time from March 2020 through spring 2021. There are takeaways from each book that translate to lessons or instances that can be used anytime. In Keeping The City Going, it’s a look at the daily things one might take for granted when living in a busy city. It takes a complex infrastructure to ensure that we get to work on time, live in safe areas, have a fire department, medical facilities, delivery drivers, and more to make things operate. The art in the book will also keep young readers coming back to this book. It’s hyper-detailed, with each apartment window being different some reflecting the landscape and others showing how varied people can be in their living space.

The opening image of two kids looking out of their window sets up the story very well too. It’s a bubble image that doesn’t take up less than half of the page. The effect of those two, looking at what’s outside, or rather, what’s not outside, is an image and feeling that any kid can relate to regarding the COVID pandemic, regardless of where they live.

Keeping The City Going is by author/illustrator Brian Floca and available from Antheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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