Purchase the book | Download teacher’s guide ABOUT URBAN ANIMALS
A fantastic assortment of animals is hiding right in your own neighborhood. Discover donkeys on grilles, boars guarding stoops, and elephants supporting flagpoles. The architectural animals in Urban Animals will introduce children to the fanciful world of our built environment. Young children will enjoy the game of identifying animals, while older children and adults will pause over the quirky architectural details. This book includes a glossary of terms with simple, clear definitions that will empower children with new words and phrases about architecture.
URBAN ANIMALS excerpt
HOW URBAN ANIMALS BEGAN
I was inspired to write Urban Animals by my daughter, Anna, who has always really loved animals, especially dogs. Working as an architectural historian and urban planner, I encourage Anna to look up at details on buildings. One day Anna and I were doing our usual “looking up,” and she said, “Mommy, look! There’s a dog on that building!” Sure enough, a dog was gazing at us from above. I never would have noticed that architectural detail if my animal-loving daughter had not been there with me. So the idea began, and Anna and I in our walks discovered many, many urban animals that we wanted to share with you. Looking at them helps us appreciate architecture and learn more about our neighborhoods. Invite a friend, parent, grandparent, or child on an animal adventure in your own neighborhood. You might be surprised what you find.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT URBAN ANIMALS Isabel Hill’s Urban Animals creatively engages children with the architecture around them. Its use of vivid pictures and rhyming story-telling make it both wonderfully educational and entertaining. I hope more people, young and old, will take the time to look for the “urban animals’ in their neighborhoods”. -Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Before your little girl or boy grows up (sigh…) to be a jaded New Yorker, unlikely to gaze skyward in wonder at building facades, bring home a copy of Urban Animals (Star Bright Books; $18 hardcover, $8 paperback). Park Slope–based photographer Isabel Hill prowled Manhattan and Brooklyn seeking out the beasties that adorn architectural brackets, medallions, keystones and more. Each left-hand page shows a wide view of a building with a colorful cartoon hint as to what creature is found there. The facing page zooms in on one of 17 different critters, among them alligators, rabbits, fish and geese. Toward the back of the book, a handy glossary explains the relevant lingo (what the heck are dentils, anyway?). The final page, titled “Animal Habitats,” details who designed each building and when, and exactly where each structure is located—so you can take your family on an urban safari of your own. -Carolyn Juris, Time Out New York “As a 2nd grade teacher, I know this book will spurn unending conversations! Forget being a second grade teacher! I couldn’t wait to turn the next page and see where an animal might be hiding amongst the buildings around me. I would love to have this as part of my classroom non-fiction library. The simplified format with the color-coded glossary is a feature I know will help my students develop essential skills in learning to love reading non-fiction.” -Paige Colanatonio, 2nd Grade Teacher, Central Elementary School, Simsbury, CT
Author Reading at PS107
“Animals in the midst of a huge city? Who would have thought! But that’s exactly what Urban Animals show us. A wonderful invitation to pay attention to and appreciate your own world. Something every child (and adult) should learn to do.” -Jeanne Jahr, 5th Grade Teacher, P. S. 321, Brooklyn, NY
“Urban Animals is a great introduction to looking at architecture! Its clever rhymes and well-chosen photographs of building ornaments make new architectural terms easy to understand and will surely open kids’ eyes to exploring architecture on their own. A simple glossary and list of the featured buildings make it a nice early reference book as well.” -Catherine Teegarden, Center for Architecture Foundation
“Urban Animals: a book too good to miss!” Isabel Hill’s Urban Animals is a wonderful little gem filled with architectural details. Readers will enjoy identifying a menagerie of sculptured creatures including elephants, squirrels, and rabbits. A sharp eye is required to locate each animals residing on a building. The glossary and directory of animal locations make the book complete.
Barbara Moon, Youth Services Consultant, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
“What makes Isabel Hill’s images particularly accessible is the beautiful photography and accompanying text that bring to life the architectural elements our kids observe and are so naturally drawn to in their day-to-day environments. A fun and imaginative way to help develop an architectural vocabulary for the budding architect.” -K. Stacy Hunter, Librarian, Poly Prep Lower School, Brooklyn, New York
“My favorite part was the lion. There is a lion on my building too!” -Samson A., age 6
“As an architect, I found this book an important contribution to my library. How often do we all walk through a city and are lost to our own thoughts. Ms. Hill asks us to look up and to see what has been put on buildings for our enjoyment. I can’t wait to take the book with me on my next walk though the streets of New York!!” -Diana Reuter-Twining, Architect
UPCOMING EVENTS Exhibition at Brooklyn Public Library
December 8, 2011 -February 18, 2012
Reception December 8 at Dweck Center Lobby from 6-8 pm, Brooklyn Public
Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn.
URBAN ANIMALS
Purchase the book | Download teacher’s guide
ABOUT URBAN ANIMALS
A fantastic assortment of animals is hiding right in your own neighborhood. Discover donkeys on grilles, boars guarding stoops, and elephants supporting flagpoles. The architectural animals in Urban Animals will introduce children to the fanciful world of our built environment. Young children will enjoy the game of identifying animals, while older children and adults will pause over the quirky architectural details. This book includes a glossary of terms with simple, clear definitions that will empower children with new words and phrases about architecture.
URBAN ANIMALS excerpt
HOW URBAN ANIMALS BEGAN
I was inspired to write Urban Animals by my daughter, Anna, who has always really loved animals, especially dogs. Working as an architectural historian and urban planner, I encourage Anna to look up at details on buildings. One day Anna and I were doing our usual “looking up,” and she said, “Mommy, look! There’s a dog on that building!” Sure enough, a dog was gazing at us from above. I never would have noticed that architectural detail if my animal-loving daughter had not been there with me. So the idea began, and Anna and I in our walks discovered many, many urban animals that we wanted to share with you. Looking at them helps us appreciate architecture and learn more about our neighborhoods. Invite a friend, parent, grandparent, or child on an animal adventure in your own neighborhood. You might be surprised what you find.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT URBAN ANIMALS
Isabel Hill’s Urban Animals creatively engages children with the architecture around them. Its use of vivid pictures and rhyming story-telling make it both wonderfully educational and entertaining. I hope more people, young and old, will take the time to look for the “urban animals’ in their neighborhoods”.
-Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
-Carolyn Juris, Time Out New York
“As a 2nd grade teacher, I know this book will spurn unending conversations! Forget being a second grade teacher! I couldn’t wait to turn the next page and see where an animal might be hiding amongst the buildings around me. I would love to have this as part of my classroom non-fiction library. The simplified format with the color-coded glossary is a feature I know will help my students develop essential skills in learning to love reading non-fiction.”
-Paige Colanatonio, 2nd Grade Teacher, Central Elementary School, Simsbury, CT
Author Reading at PS107
“Animals in the midst of a huge city? Who would have thought! But that’s exactly what Urban Animals show us. A wonderful invitation to pay attention to and appreciate your own world. Something every child (and adult) should learn to do.”
-Jeanne Jahr, 5th Grade Teacher, P. S. 321, Brooklyn, NY
“Urban Animals is a great introduction to looking at architecture! Its clever rhymes and well-chosen photographs of building ornaments make new architectural terms easy to understand and will surely open kids’ eyes to exploring architecture on their own. A simple glossary and list of the featured buildings make it a nice early reference book as well.”
-Catherine Teegarden, Center for Architecture Foundation
“Urban Animals: a book too good to miss!” Isabel Hill’s Urban Animals is a wonderful little gem filled with architectural details. Readers will enjoy identifying a menagerie of sculptured creatures including elephants, squirrels, and rabbits. A sharp eye is required to locate each animals residing on a building. The glossary and directory of animal locations make the book complete.
Barbara Moon, Youth Services Consultant, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
“What makes Isabel Hill’s images particularly accessible is the beautiful photography and accompanying text that bring to life the architectural elements our kids observe and are so naturally drawn to in their day-to-day environments. A fun and imaginative way to help develop an architectural vocabulary for the budding architect.”
-K. Stacy Hunter, Librarian, Poly Prep Lower School, Brooklyn, New York
“My favorite part was the lion. There is a lion on my building too!”
-Samson A., age 6
“As an architect, I found this book an important contribution to my library. How often do we all walk through a city and are lost to our own thoughts. Ms. Hill asks us to look up and to see what has been put on buildings for our enjoyment. I can’t wait to take the book with me on my next walk though the streets of New York!!”
-Diana Reuter-Twining, Architect
“Wow! That book is so cool.”
-Colette D, age 7